JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #143 - November/December 2021 - 4

MOVING COMPOSITES FORWARD
«Our goal is to deliver a car that you only
After winning the World Solar Challenge with the experimental
sustainable family car Stella, part of the Lightyear Dutch
team behind it started to dream about world's fi rst street legal
solar family car that comfortably fi ts 5 persons on their daily
journeys. They created Lightyear One, a solar family car that
should appeal to a broad public. Tessie Hartjes, VP Marketing,
expose this project and vision: move people in harmony with
nature.
Tell us about the Lightyear adventure and
the goal behind it. How did this project, not
without challenges, come about?
Tessie Hartjes: Th e history of
Lightyear lies in the World Solar Challenge.
A team from the Eindhoven University of
Technology competed and became world
champions by building a 5-seater solar
cAar that was able to drive between 1,000
to 1,500 km on a single batt ery charge.
Th e fi rst time they did that was in 2013.
Around that time, the fi rst EVs with a range
of 100-250 km took to the streets. Most importantly,
during the race they noticed that
the gasoline cars had to stop at the station
to refi ll whereas the solar car could just go
on driving. Th e experience and technology
achievement from this race, breaking some
of the barriers for EV adoption (range,
«Our goal is to deliver a car that you only
need to charge once or twice a year»
with
TESSIE HARTJES,
Marketing
Lightyear
charging, and in the end costs), made the
founders of Lightyear realise that there is
actually a large potential for solar cars in
the commercial market. Due to its long
range, low charging needs and small battery
(making the car relatively cheap), producing
a mass-market solar car can address
the customer needs much more effi ciently
than EVs that try to provide a lot of range
by using a lot of batt ery, in result leading to
a very charging infrastructure dependent
vehicle. Lightyear aims to do the opposite:
build cars that only have to charge once or
twice a year, and can be driven based on
pre-existing infrastructure (the sun and
normal power sockets). We want to leapfrog
the charging infrastructure and scale
worldwide so we can provide clean mobility
for everyone, everywhere.
Lightyear one combines design and beauty for an optimum effi ciency
4 jec composites magazine / N°
143 November - December 2021
Your latest prototype, Lightyear One, just
smashed a record for range on a single
battery charge. Can you tell us more about
how the prototype works and the conditions
of this test?
T.H.: Th e car was tested on a test track in
Germany where we drove 8.45 hours, completing
over 339 laps. It was quite a windy
day with intermitt ent clouds, and temperatures
ranging between 20-24 Celsius. We
drove at a constant speed of 85 km/hr.
From the World Solar Challenge, we developed
a Vehicle Performance Model to
accurately predict the energy consumption
of the vehicle in diff erent circumstances.
For the challenge this was very important,
you were only allowed to charge once
every 3,000 km. So, you want to make sure
the batt ery is as empty as possible when
you charge it. Our prediction models are
therefore extremely detailed. An important
part of this test was to validate our
models and to validate the performance of
our technologies developed in-house such
as the in-wheel motors, inverters, and solar
roof. Within the vehicle design, we have
focussed on making it very effi cient, developing
our own powertrain, designing the
car to be very aerodynamically optimised
(with a drag coeffi cient of less than 0.20 -
the best in the market) and together with
our partner Bridgestone we have developed
tyres with very low rolling resistance.
For the fi rst run, we were very happy with
the results! Th e next step is to perform
more tests, such as at higher speeds and in
diff erent weather conditions.
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #143 - November/December 2021

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