2y ago

Lightyear, the Dutch solar car maker goes back in business after restructuring caused by bankruptcy

insideevs.com Lightyear Goes Back In Business After Restructuring Caused By Bankruptcy

The company says it has raised enough capital to continue working on its second model, the much more affordable Lightyear 2, which is supposed to have a starting price of around $40,000 in the United States.

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Solar modules are cheap, why not integrate them into the car? I'd love to get an extra 6 miles of range on my leaf per day just for being in the sun.
- Perhaps, but repair expenses will certainly be crazy high.

Awesome. I hope they succeed.

Similar story to Aptera Motors, they collapsed and reformed in 2019 and they're raising money to put out a solar EV.
- I guess… Aptera’s vehicle is much more innovative and much closer to production. What makes this car interesting? I can’t find the specs but it looks like a regular vehicle with solar on the roof which I don’t think is a very practical idea.
  
  About 80% of all effort for the Lightyear cars is in efficiency.
  You have the obvious, like weight and aerodynamics. But also things like in-wheel motors, which are much more efficient than normal electrical engines, since there are almost no mechanical losses. Or the rear-view camera's, which save a lot of energy on air-resistance.

Hmm, turns out this article was published on the 7th of April...

Cars are an inconvenient and silly location to place solar panels. This concept is just adding engineering complexity that need not be.
- Idk, it's a device that's already fitted with huge batteries, so it makes sense to put them on something that can be charged
  
  sigh..
  No, it doesn't. Just because something 'appears' to make sense to laymen, doesn't mean it continues to make sense when you follow through with an investigation.
  It doesn't make sense. If your goal is to make a crappier version of both a solar panel and a car, sure. But the amount of power you are going to get from the tiny amount of panels you can put into a car versus the massive power consumption they require is negligible. All your assumption shows is that you understand neither solar panels, nor cars.
- Solar modules are cheap, why not integrate them into the car? I'd love to get an extra 6 miles of range on my leaf per day just for being in the sun.
  
  I feel like I shouldn't have to explain something so obvious/ easily googled, but here is a write up that explains it.
  Quite simply, we should make solar panels that are good and meet the need of what it takes to be a good solar panel.
  We should make cars that are good cars and meet the needs of what it takes to be a good car.
  A car with a solar panel meets neither of these requirements. Its a stupid way to do both. You are introducing un-neccessary engineering issues to make both a) a worse car, and b) a worse solar panel. Your panels need to now be structural and able to protect the occupants. You've also made the car heavier and less efficient. Also, how about when the car is fully charged? How useful are those panels? What good are they doing anyone? If your answer is to send their power to the grid, why did we ever put them on the car in the first place when we can just power the grid with solar and then put the energy into the car?
  Solar panels on cares are a dumb idea. It takes only a few moments of thinking it through to understand that. Also, powering the grid with solar, and then powering your car from the grid IS a solar powered car.

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