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This article is thin on content and wrong on many many points. 1° the Lightyear Zero is actually in production. There is no reason to think the cars built won'

by wazoox 4y ago

This article is thin on content and wrong on many many points. 1° the Lightyear Zero is actually in production. There is no reason to think the cars built won't be sold soon... 2° the lightyear 0 has a sophisticated series of controllers for its solar cell that can activate solar cells independantly, therefore it's definitely no losing 50% of its power when 5% of the panel is in the shade. 3° dust doesn't reduce solar output that much. Washing the panels once a year is generally enough, and most people wash their cars more often than that. I love back-of-envelope calculations to check for lies, but they shouldn't preclude making your minimal homework first...

moffkalast 4y ago
> sophisticated series of controllers for its solar cell that can activate solar cells independently, therefore it's definitely no losing 50% of its power when 5% of the panel is in the shade Aka just putting a single bypass diode on every cell, it's not complicated.
bouk 4y ago
Lightyear zero is no longer in production: https://lightyear.one/articles/lightyear-decides-to-fully-focus-on-lightyear-2 https://lightyear.one/articles/lightyear-decides-to-fully-fo... And it seems like the whole company might be bankrupt.
mikestew 4y ago
the lightyear 0 has a sophisticated series of controllers… It was an extra $50 to get a controller for our RV solar that has that same functionality. MPPT solar chargers are hardly “sophisticated“ anymore. Speaking of chiding others for doing homework, the Lightyear is no longer in production: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/23/lightyear-stops-production-on-e250000-solar-powered-ev/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/23/lightyear-stops-production...
jillesvangurp 4y ago
Aptera is also close to production. Several other, manufacturers are adding solar to their vehicles. Also, there are a few electrical campers with some solar panels. So, basically these things are coming to market. And why not, it makes a lot of sense. Most cars don't drive most of the time. And if they are catching any light, you basically top up the battery a little bit for free. Or put differently, that's energy you don't have to pay for. Yes, it adds some cost. And it saves you money. Kind of balances things out pretty quickly. And it adds some convenience for day to day use where you add enough power that you don't have to go to a charger so often. Especially for short commutes, this makes a lot of sense. Dust is not a big deal. Indeed nothing a good old car wash can deal with. Or a bit of rain. Panel degradation happens very slowly otherwise. I don't think that's a huge concern.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  Aptera is far more likely to go out of business than to be the next Tesla. Right now in terms of likely to survive five years in EV land, you can rank Tesla>Rivian>Lucid>Fisker>Aptera>Lightyear .. and there's probably some other clowns I am forgetting. Like Lordstown, Nikola, Canoo, Faraday, Bollinger and Vinfast! Vinfast has a higher chance of being alive in 5 years than Aptera. At least they've made a bunch of (pretty bad) cars. Of the above list, if 3 of them beyond Tesla are still around on the other side of whatever recession is pending, and actually shipping cars in the 10k/year++ range, I'd be shocked.
  - panick21_ 4y ago
    I think Bollinger is already bust. Rivian is dropping money like there is no tomorrow and they survive because they razed unimaginable amounts of money. Tesla isn't even in that league anymore, they are more profitable then all other car companies (outside of Toyota). Its more likely some of those will bust (or merge) before Tesla will go bust.
    - steveBK123 4y ago
      That’s why I put Tesla at top of list. And frame it as which of the rest will survive. It’s baked in that Tesla will be fine.
    - thombat 4y ago
      That's a very apt typo: "razed" (burnt to the ground) for "raised" (collected funds)
      - panick21_ 4y ago
        I wish I was that clever and not just dyslexic.
        thombat 4y ago
        Take it as a free win - and although I'm not dyslexic autocorrect works to portray me in a similar light, which of course I usually only notice after the edit window has closed.
steveBK123 4y ago
Bad news - LY0 is already out of production, after an astounding production rate of 1 car per week. This just is a niche of a niche of a niche idea, high cost, low return. Wiki: he company announced in December 2022 that production had begun, at a rate of one car per week. Availability is currently limited to customers in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and the UK.[4] However, in January 2023 it announced that production of Lightyear 0 has been suspended to redirect their efforts towards production of Lightyear 2 Following to source article: Helmond based Atlas Technologies which is responsible for production of the Lightyear 0 solar powered car, was declared bankrupt on Thursday, with the loss of 620 jobs. Parent company Lightyear had asked for court protection from creditors for the unit earlier this week, after announcing that production of the 0 model would stop. Read more at DutchNews.nl:
- whazor 4y ago
  It is a shame, they had a really promising car. Their design is based on a hyper efficient car, with a smaller, and thus cheaper battery. The solar panel is a small benefit, but would overall provide the car with more range per kg and $. But to become affordable it needs major investments for reaching mass production, which nobody wants to do. They still have the holding that owns the IP, so I suspect they will try to sell parts of their design to other car makers. Especially their in-wheel motors are very efficient.
  - steveBK123 4y ago
    I think a lot of these startups would have been better served as trying to be specialist OEMs for the one or two things they really innovated on and not tried to make a whole car. Imagine if they were selling the old school car makers their highly efficient motors being built out of a single factory with no support network or retail stores needed. Instead of trying to take on the behemoths in an extremely low margin business. I think the EV startup and SPAC IPO craze is really the final blow out top of the ZIRP bubble. Look at mobileye for example. Instead of trying to mine gold, sell shovels.
    - panick21_ 4y ago

by wazoox 4y ago

moffkalast 4y ago

> sophisticated series of controllers for its solar cell that can activate solar cells independently, therefore it's definitely no losing 50% of its power when 5% of the panel is in the shade Aka just putting a single bypass diode on every cell, it's not complicated.

bouk 4y ago

Lightyear zero is no longer in production: https://lightyear.one/articles/lightyear-decides-to-fully-focus-on-lightyear-2 https://lightyear.one/articles/lightyear-decides-to-fully-fo... And it seems like the whole company might be bankrupt.

mikestew 4y ago

the lightyear 0 has a sophisticated series of controllers… It was an extra $50 to get a controller for our RV solar that has that same functionality. MPPT solar chargers are hardly “sophisticated“ anymore. Speaking of chiding others for doing homework, the Lightyear is no longer in production: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/23/lightyear-stops-production-on-e250000-solar-powered-ev/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/23/lightyear-stops-production...

jillesvangurp 4y ago

Aptera is also close to production. Several other, manufacturers are adding solar to their vehicles. Also, there are a few electrical campers with some solar panels. So, basically these things are coming to market. And why not, it makes a lot of sense. Most cars don't drive most of the time. And if they are catching any light, you basically top up the battery a little bit for free. Or put differently, that's energy you don't have to pay for. Yes, it adds some cost. And it saves you money. Kind of balances things out pretty quickly. And it adds some convenience for day to day use where you add enough power that you don't have to go to a charger so often. Especially for short commutes, this makes a lot of sense. Dust is not a big deal. Indeed nothing a good old car wash can deal with. Or a bit of rain. Panel degradation happens very slowly otherwise. I don't think that's a huge concern.

steveBK123 4y ago
Aptera is far more likely to go out of business than to be the next Tesla. Right now in terms of likely to survive five years in EV land, you can rank Tesla>Rivian>Lucid>Fisker>Aptera>Lightyear .. and there's probably some other clowns I am forgetting. Like Lordstown, Nikola, Canoo, Faraday, Bollinger and Vinfast! Vinfast has a higher chance of being alive in 5 years than Aptera. At least they've made a bunch of (pretty bad) cars. Of the above list, if 3 of them beyond Tesla are still around on the other side of whatever recession is pending, and actually shipping cars in the 10k/year++ range, I'd be shocked.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  I think Bollinger is already bust. Rivian is dropping money like there is no tomorrow and they survive because they razed unimaginable amounts of money. Tesla isn't even in that league anymore, they are more profitable then all other car companies (outside of Toyota). Its more likely some of those will bust (or merge) before Tesla will go bust.
  - steveBK123 4y ago
    That’s why I put Tesla at top of list. And frame it as which of the rest will survive. It’s baked in that Tesla will be fine.
  - thombat 4y ago
    That's a very apt typo: "razed" (burnt to the ground) for "raised" (collected funds)
    - panick21_ 4y ago
      I wish I was that clever and not just dyslexic.
      - thombat 4y ago
        Take it as a free win - and although I'm not dyslexic autocorrect works to portray me in a similar light, which of course I usually only notice after the edit window has closed.

steveBK123 4y ago

Bad news - LY0 is already out of production, after an astounding production rate of 1 car per week. This just is a niche of a niche of a niche idea, high cost, low return. Wiki: he company announced in December 2022 that production had begun, at a rate of one car per week. Availability is currently limited to customers in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and the UK.[4] However, in January 2023 it announced that production of Lightyear 0 has been suspended to redirect their efforts towards production of Lightyear 2 Following to source article: Helmond based Atlas Technologies which is responsible for production of the Lightyear 0 solar powered car, was declared bankrupt on Thursday, with the loss of 620 jobs. Parent company Lightyear had asked for court protection from creditors for the unit earlier this week, after announcing that production of the 0 model would stop. Read more at DutchNews.nl:

whazor 4y ago
It is a shame, they had a really promising car. Their design is based on a hyper efficient car, with a smaller, and thus cheaper battery. The solar panel is a small benefit, but would overall provide the car with more range per kg and $. But to become affordable it needs major investments for reaching mass production, which nobody wants to do. They still have the holding that owns the IP, so I suspect they will try to sell parts of their design to other car makers. Especially their in-wheel motors are very efficient.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  I think a lot of these startups would have been better served as trying to be specialist OEMs for the one or two things they really innovated on and not tried to make a whole car. Imagine if they were selling the old school car makers their highly efficient motors being built out of a single factory with no support network or retail stores needed. Instead of trying to take on the behemoths in an extremely low margin business. I think the EV startup and SPAC IPO craze is really the final blow out top of the ZIRP bubble. Look at mobileye for example. Instead of trying to mine gold, sell shovels.
  - panick21_ 4y ago