No surprise! After all, Lightyear won’t be building its own solar car

Dutch company Lightyear, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, is canceling plans to build its own solar car. And that’s no surprise.

The outside world did not see the downfall coming. At the end of 2022, it was celebrated that production of the 250,000 euro Lightyear 0 had begun in Valmet, Finland.

Lightyear 2 for 40,000 euros

At the beginning of January, the manufacturer even showed the first image of the cheaper Lightyear 2, which is scheduled to come onto the market in 2025 for a starting price of 40,000 euros.

Bankruptcy Atlas Technologies

A few weeks later the first signals emerged that things weren’t going well. The construction of the 0 was stopped due to financial problems. Lightyear said he would focus on the 2.

A few days later, Atlas Technologies was declared bankrupt. The operating company was responsible for the development and construction of the 0.

Billions of euros for production

Shortly after the bankruptcy, the curator realized that a new start might be possible. There were interested investors, especially the entrepreneur Arnoud Aalbersberg.

They raised €8 million, but €1 billion was needed to put the two into production. “There is a lot of belief in this,” Aalbersberg told the business magazine Quote.

Lightyear as a supplier

Well, not… Lightyear has therefore decided to stop focusing on building its own solar car. The company continues to be a supplier of solar modules to the automotive industry.

“We have proven that an affordable solar car is possible,” co-founder and director Lex Hoefsloot told NOS. Meh, we wouldn’t call 250,000 euros affordable for the 0…