CES is the stage for daydreams from the automotive world. A setting made for Lightyear. The start-up from the Netherlands wants to become a world improver with solar cars. On the Las Vegas Strip, founder Lex Hoefsloot (31) drummed for his supposed second model, the Lightyear 2.
Too bad that the brand’s first car, the Lightyear 0, isn’t even on the road yet – and won’t make it there either. If Hoefsloot in the USA still felt “loaded for everything that is to come”, he shocked his followers on Monday evening: Lightyear has miscalculated, the Lightyear 0 will be discontinued. The production of the luxury sled, which the company wanted to sell for 250,000 euros, only started in December at the Finnish contract manufacturer Valmet. 946 units were to be built, more than a handful were not. What will happen to the finished cars is unclear.
Hoefsloot tried to sell the crash landing as a “new focus”. Lightyear now wants to concentrate fully on its actually second model. The Lightyear 2 should be a car for the masses with prices starting at 40,000 euros. 40,000 private buyers have already pre-ordered, fleet customers such as the leasing giant Arval are said to have reserved 20,000 vehicles. Lightyear plans to launch the crossover in 2025. The car praises the start-up with a range of around 800 kilometers. Solar panels in the outer skin should contribute 70 kilometers of this free house on sunny days.
But despite Hoefsloot’s assurances that he would take “a lot of valuable experience” from the disaster with the Lightyear 0, it doesn’t look like that. So far, the company has raised around 210 million euros from investors. However, new vehicle projects often cost billions. Like many other start-ups, Lightyear recently found it difficult to get more money.
If the founders don’t succeed in quickly attracting further investors, the Lightyear 2 will not go beyond project status. Maybe a well-known name will help with the search: Bernd Martens (56) has been COO on the Lightyear board since November 2022. He was Head of Purchasing at Audi between 2012 and 2020 and should know how expensive new vehicle projects can be. But is that enough to achieve the turnaround?
The Sono Sion is also on the verge of extinction
Other start-ups also dream of the solar car. First and foremost: Sono Motors. But their project “Sion” is also about to end. Begging since mid-December
the founders Laurin Hahn (28) and Jona Christians (29) for donations in the form of pre-orders. Only if you get almost 105 million euros from the crowd can the Sion be further developed in the direction of series production. 330 million euros that Sono has collected so far are far from enough.
Almost three days before the targeted end of the campaign, things are looking bad for Sono. So far, around 46 million euros have been raised. If Hahn and Christian keep their word, the Sion should in all likelihood be history this week. However, the founders have included the option to extend the campaign in the terms and conditions for their appeal for donations.
Should Sono-Spitz decide against it or even that doesn’t help, the company wants to continue as a solar supplier for vehicle manufacturers. That would cost most of the approximately 450 employees their jobs.
It is unclear how long the approximately 600 employees at Lightyear will continue. After the management for its operating company “Atlas Technologies B.V.” has applied for a payment moratorium, the Dutch employment agency UWV is paying the salaries for the time being.
The Lightyear management enthusiastically described the time at the CES in Las Vegas in early January shortly after the end of the trade fair as a “four-day whirlwind”. Now it turned into a heavy storm.