New York (CNN Business)The Lightyear One is a car with solar panels stretching across its roof to charge the electric vehicle's batteries. But whether it's really a "solar powered car" depends on how you drive it.
Video via @CNN
The car, created by Dutch startup Lightyear, has a charging port to plug into a charger. But the solar panels can charge the Lightyear One's batteries at a rate of about 7.5 miles of charge every hour. That's slow compared to plugging it in. Still, if you parked it outside your office on a sunny day, it could soak up enough power to drive 60 miles, which is more than most people drive on a typical day.
"In the summer in the Netherlands, you probably won't have to charge for about two months," said Lightyear CEO Lex Hoefsloot, "and that's with average driving."
The company was founded in 2016 by several members of Eindhoven University of Technology's team that won the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a competition for solar-powered cars. If it reaches production, Lightyear One will be the company's first car.
The batteries hold enough energy for 450 miles of driving, the company says. The solar panels will work even when the car is moving, meaning that as you're going down the highway — assuming you're traveling in the daytime — the sun's energy will replenish at least some of the power you're using. On a long drive, help from the sun could add as much as 50 miles to a fully charged battery.
The car's five square meters of solar panels are very efficient at converting sunlight to energy, the company claims. They're covered in the same sort of glass used in sunroofs, so the panels are very strong and in a crash won't break into sharp pieces.
The major advances in the car have to do with its overall efficiency, said Hoefsloot. With its low, sloping shape and covered rear wheels, the car is designed to be extraordinarily aerodynamic. Each wheel is powered by its own electric motor. Placing the motors as close as possible to the wheels increases efficiency and, since the motors act as generators to recapture energy during braking, four-wheel-drive electric cars are more efficient than two-wheel-drive ones.
"In the summer in the Netherlands, you probably won't have to charge for about two months," said Lightyear CEO Lex Hoefsloot, "and that's with average driving."
The company was founded in 2016 by several members of Eindhoven University of Technology's team that won the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a competition for solar-powered cars. If it reaches production, Lightyear One will be the company's first car.
The batteries hold enough energy for 450 miles of driving, the company says. The solar panels will work even when the car is moving, meaning that as you're going down the highway — assuming you're traveling in the daytime — the sun's energy will replenish at least some of the power you're using. On a long drive, help from the sun could add as much as 50 miles to a fully charged battery.
The car's five square meters of solar panels are very efficient at converting sunlight to energy, the company claims. They're covered in the same sort of glass used in sunroofs, so the panels are very strong and in a crash won't break into sharp pieces.
The major advances in the car have to do with its overall efficiency, said Hoefsloot. With its low, sloping shape and covered rear wheels, the car is designed to be extraordinarily aerodynamic. Each wheel is powered by its own electric motor. Placing the motors as close as possible to the wheels increases efficiency and, since the motors act as generators to recapture energy during braking, four-wheel-drive electric cars are more efficient than two-wheel-drive ones.
