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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,

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
    The problem with that is, they can't raise money on that and the OEMs take 5-10 years before adopting new tech. That is why they mostly buy from established people like Borg. Being a small tech company that gets bought up into on of the large suppliers like Borg is a possible path but not all that likely.
    - steveBK123 4y ago
      I think in a traditional market, "hey we have this great tech we'd like to raise capital to operate as a B2B biz" would probably be fine. In the crazy tech/EV/ZIRP VC-funded bubble, especially the final SPAC-it-rubes IPO cash-out phase... everyone was incentivized to raise way too much money as long as they pretended they'd be able to target and user market of billions. Sort of mutually agreed delusion.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  I don't think in-wheel motors actually make that much sense. There is a reason almost nobody is perusing it. Its mostly pushed by start-ups who want to have some 'unique selling' points. Their IP wont be worth all that much. Honestly, it was pretty clear from the beginning they wouldn't make it. Starting a car company is insanely difficult. And they arrived right in the Wild West of free money and EV scams with a car that would be incredibly hard and incredibly expensive produce. Without some absurd raises in money like Rivian or Lucid (Saudi money) you are simply not gone do it.

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
  The problem with that is, they can't raise money on that and the OEMs take 5-10 years before adopting new tech. That is why they mostly buy from established people like Borg. Being a small tech company that gets bought up into on of the large suppliers like Borg is a possible path but not all that likely.
  - steveBK123 4y ago
    I think in a traditional market, "hey we have this great tech we'd like to raise capital to operate as a B2B biz" would probably be fine. In the crazy tech/EV/ZIRP VC-funded bubble, especially the final SPAC-it-rubes IPO cash-out phase... everyone was incentivized to raise way too much money as long as they pretended they'd be able to target and user market of billions. Sort of mutually agreed delusion.
panick21_ 4y ago
I don't think in-wheel motors actually make that much sense. There is a reason almost nobody is perusing it. Its mostly pushed by start-ups who want to have some 'unique selling' points. Their IP wont be worth all that much. Honestly, it was pretty clear from the beginning they wouldn't make it. Starting a car company is insanely difficult. And they arrived right in the Wild West of free money and EV scams with a car that would be incredibly hard and incredibly expensive produce. Without some absurd raises in money like Rivian or Lucid (Saudi money) you are simply not gone do it.