Developing the electric car that charges itself: Lightyear One

Project Information

LIGHTYEAR

Grant agreement ID: 848620

DOI

10.3030/848620

Project closed

EC signature date 31 January 2019

Start date 1 February 2019

End date 31 January 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 3 570 500,00

EU contribution

€ 2 499 350,00

Coordinated by

ATLAS TECHNOLOGIES BV
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LIGHTYEAR (Developing the electric car that charges itself: Lightyear One)

Reporting period: 2020-02-01 to 2021-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Lightyear, an international team of 90 engineers including triple winners of the World Solar Challenge, experienced engineers, experienced engineers (180+ years) from the aerospace, racing and automotive industry (e.g. ASML, Tesla, Ferrari and InAlfa) and alumni of the Eindhoven University of Technology, develops the first commercially available electric solar car in the world that charges itself: the Lightyear One. This extremely resource efficient family car will be able to drive for weeks on self-generated solar energy. The engineers started from the rationale that the car should be incredibly efficient, in order to develop an independent entity with its own energy source. To achieve this, Lightyear had to minimize the car’s energy consumption and maximize its energy input. They have achieved this by using four in wheel motors instead of one rigid motor for the powertrain, lowering the total mass of the car by using lightweight bio based materials, developing a redesign to improve aerodynamics, developing a new battery pack and by integrating their in-house custom developed solar panels on the roof and bonnet of the car. Result: a car that excels in driving range, weight, energy consumption, sustainability and operation costs, especially compared to the current market's state-of-the-art electric cars. With the Lightyear One, range anxiety, the dependency on energy (charging) infrastructure, and the use of non-renewable/inefficient energy sources to charge your car, will belong to the past. In this project, Lightyear aims to develop, validate and demonstrate the first Lightyear One, bringing their innovation from TRL 5/6 to 8. Lightyear expects to produce the first 10 signature cars in 2020, and start serial production from 2021 onwards. This development reinforces competitiveness and performance of European transport manufacturing industries on the global market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project started in February 2019. In short, the work performed in up to now concerns: the development of the demonstration model, demonstrations of the working model, developing set-up for production and logistics, filing patents for key technologies and perform multiple tests with the Lightyear One to validate its specifics such as wind tunnel, construction, rolling road, safety, quality and weighting tests.

Main results achieved so far: development of demonstration model and its successful public demonstration. The realization of the demonstration model was a crucial milestone in the project. Activities included: further development of core technologies, integration of all components, individual component testing and integration tests.

In Q2 2019 Lightyear organized a major demonstration event. The international unveiling event was held the 25th of June at TheatherHangaar in Katwijk, the Netherlands. Around 800 guests arrived to see the unveiling of the demonstration model of the Lightyear One. Around 55,000 people from around the world watched the unveiling via a livestream on YouTube. The combination of a press conference together with press release resulted in worldwide media traction at over 600 outlets. The total reach is estimated over 2.1 billion people. Many of the important international tech, innovation and automotive channels wrote about Lightyear One e.g. TechCrunch, Business Insider and Top Gear. Also tech papers in South-America, Asia and the UK wrote about the Lightyear One.

Furthermore, in Q2 2019 Lightyear executed studies to detail the concept for the set-up for production and logistics. In Q3 2019, Manufacturing Process Engineering and Production have focused on detailing the optimum layout for the assembly line. Lightyear has been reviewing the concept layout from different angles. The goal is to establish a “Showroom assembly line” that combines an optimum use of the space available, an efficient balanced workflow and a line output that serves the demands. A good logistic in- and outbound process is mandatory to get this realised.

Currently, multiple tests are performed with the demonstration model. The team has tested, among others, the different aerodynamics configurations of Lightyear One. The wind tunnel test confirmed that the Lightyear One is the world’s most aerodynamic production car with an aerodynamic drag of 0.2. With the reduced weight of the car minimising road friction and the streamlined design reducing drag, Lightyear One is equipped to perform at low and high speeds alike. Being 2 times more efficient than regular electric cars, Lightyear One can drive a longer distance without needing to charge.

At last and as a result of, amongst others, the Lightyear initiative, the Dutch government has agreed to create a separate category for solar powered cars that has additional tax incentives, even compared to other electric car.

For an overview of the results of the final period and the total project see appendix: H2020 - Final Report.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The highly efficient Lightyear One consists of multiple beyond the state of the art technologies. The power of the car comes from four in-wheel motors in order to lower weight and improving control. Five square metres of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules are integrated in the bonnet, roof and tailgate of the Lightyear One resulting that it will provide an additional of 15km range of each hour charged in the sun. Combined with the energy from the battery, the Lightyear can drive over 1000km without charging, which is significantly more than the longest-range pure electric car that exists on the market. The Lightyear One has an ultra-low aerodynamic drag due to its streamlined design. E.g. wheel covers are used and traditional mirrors are replaced by high resolution cameras. The demonstration model has an aerodynamic drag coefficient of approximately 0.2 resulting in having the best aerodynamics of any existing car. In the first months of the project these technologies are further developed into the demonstration model. The demonstration model was the first car that integrated the abovementioned technologies. All year round Lightyear has focused on baselining the requirements of the product, supported by external specialists, feedback and learnings of component testing, system and subsystem testing and the prototype. In this way, Lightyear strengthened its focus on the state of the art efficient architecture, the solar roof, and in-wheel motors. Expected results until the end of the project are the specifications of the car being validated and demonstrated, a validated production-model and a production plan.

The rise of the solar-powered mobility market has started. Recently published reports have highlighted the importance of this market. Solar Power Europe has mentioned that solar energy directly at the vehicle is likely to become a cost-competitive fuel for transport. Both Bloomberg and IDtechEx estimated a multibillion dollar market for solar-powered mobility in the near future. However, support measures are still needed as technology needs to develop in efficient drivetrains, lightweights materials and integrated solar on mobility. In every report, Lightyear is mentioned as a forward-looking business, paving the way for solar-powered mobility. The impact of Lightyear is recognised by TIME Magazine, the named nominated us for the Top 100 best inventions of 2019 and Lightyear featured as one of Europe’s hottest scale-ups as part of TNW’s Tech5 competition.

International Unveiling of Lightyear One

Wind Tunnel Testing

Lightyear One