CARS OF THE WORLD

Lightyear One 2022.

Lightyear One 2022. Lightyear One solar electric prototype breaks 710 km autonomy record

In the near future, there will be electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles in the industry. But there is another technology in electrification, albeit not as advanced. We are talking about solar cars.

Lightyear One is getting closer to market launch. At this point, prototypes have reached an excellent maximum range.

The Dutch will open order books by the end of the year, so they are already at the stage of testing the autonomy of the model. The novelty will be sold in a limited edition in 2022.

The new solar-powered car covered at least 710 kilometers with a fully charged battery. That being said, there is one special detail that should be taken into account: the maximum speed during the test was 85 km / h, covering the distance in 9 hours.

The test also checked the operation of the solar modules, battery power, power consumption of the cooling system, wheel motors and control software of the entire assembly.

The Dutch said that the results of these tests show that we are creating the most efficient electric vehicle in the world.

The battery capacity is 60 kWh, especially considering that there is no electric vehicle on the market that would achieve the same autonomy with a battery of this capacity. In addition, part of the body is filled with solar panels to charge the car while driving.

Lightyear One is a large 5-door 5-seater liftback with a length of 5057 mm, a width of 1898 mm and a height of 1426 mm.

The volume of the trunk varies from 780 to 1701 liters. Aluminum and CFRP are widely used in the body structure to keep the weight of the machine as low as possible.

The traction battery is located in the floor, its capacity is not named. The car is driven by four motor-wheels. Power is unknown, but Lightyear One is reported to accelerate to 100 km / h in 10 seconds. Suspension — spring, double wishbone «in a circle».

Solar panels provide up to 20 thousand kilometers of «free» mileage per year, but the specific value, of course, depends on the place of operation — it is clear that in chronically rainy Salzburg solar mileage will be less than in Hawaii.

The declared cumulative range on a single charge is 725 km according to the WLTP cycle — a record for a serial electric vehicle.

Traditional charging is possible both from an ordinary household outlet (you can replenish the range of 350 km per night), and from powerful express terminals, which allow you to «pump» the battery for 570 km of run in an hour.

The interior is presented so far by the only photo of the front row, according to which it can be concluded that there is no naked plastic in the cabin, everything that can be upholstered with natural fabric, and natural wood is used as the floor covering.

Bucket seats with integral head restraints are a controversial solution for a family car, but obviously dictated by the desire to reduce the weight of the structure.

In the next phase, Lightyear engineers will look for a range that is close to that achieved at highway speeds, which translates into a reduction in power consumption below 85 Wh / km.

A task for which they still have time, considering that the first 946 units will go into production in the first half of 2021. The price can be 150,000 euros or 13,316 thousand rubles.