Helmond, the Netherlands, 18 December 2018: LeasePlan Netherlands collaborates with Dutch scale-up Lightyear, the first company in the world to develop an electric solar car for consumers. LeasePlan Netherlands becomes Lightyear’s leasing partner for the Lightyear One, the first car produced by the company. The Pioneer Edition of the Lightyear One is expected to drive on Dutch roads in 2020.
Lightyear, founded by triple World Solar Challenge winners, will open its production facility at the Automotive Campus in Helmond, the Netherlands this week. The Lightyear One is the first electric car with integrated solar cells capable of driving 8,000 to 10,000 kilometres per year on solar energy in the Netherlands. The design of the car is still top secret, but it is already known that it is a five-seater hatchback with all-wheel drive, with a range of up to 800 kilometres.
Lightyear has grown to 100 employees and is working with engineering firms FEV and EDAG to launch the first prototypes in the summer of 2019. The first Lightyear Ones sold will be delivered in 2020.
Thanks to the cooperation between LeasePlan Netherlands and Lightyear, the solar car can be both bought and leased. This makes the car directly accessible to a broader corporate target group.
Leaders in sustainable mobility
LeasePlan and Lightyear are both in pioneering roles in the field of sustainable mobility and have ambitions to accelerate the transition to clean mobility. This was underlined this week by both parties’ participation in the UNFCCC climate conference in Katowice.
Erik Henstra, Managing Director of LeasePlan Netherlands: “Lightyear shows that it is possible to drive electrically on solar power. As a leasing partner we want to offer our customers the opportunity to make a powerful sustainability statement by driving the world’s first solar car for consumers. This cooperation also contributes to our ambition to completely eliminate emissions from our own fleet in 2021 and our total fleet of 1.8 million cars in 2030.”
“With LeasePlan we have a strong partner on board that strengthens us with a solid network in the Netherlands and Europe”, adds Lex Hoefsloot, CEO of Lightyear. “Corporate drivers play an important pioneering role in the introduction of new technologies. We’ve seen that before with the electric car. This partnership with LeasePlan will certainly help us as we move towards the broad launch of the Lightyear One in 2021.”
Lightyear made a summary of the press conference. You can watch the 14-minute video by clicking on the image below.
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About LeasePlan
LeasePlan is a leader in two large and growing markets: Car-as-a-Service for new cars, through its LeasePlan business, and the high-quality three-to-four year old used car market, through its CarNext.com business. LeasePlan’s Car-as-a-Service business purchases, funds and manages new vehicles for its customers, providing a complete end-to-end service for a typical contract duration of three to four years. CarNext.com is a pan-European digital marketplace for high-quality used cars seamlessly delivering any car, anytime, anywhere and is supplied with vehicles from LeasePlan’s own fleet as well as third-party partners. LeasePlan has 1.8 million vehicles under management in over 30 countries. With over 50 years’ experience, LeasePlan’s mission is to provide what’s next in mobility via an ‘any car, anytime, anywhere’ service – so our customers can focus on what’s next. Find out more at www.leaseplan.com/corporate.
About Lightyear
Lightyear is a fast growing company with more than 100 employees, consisting of a mix of young top talent from the winning teams of the World Solar Challenge and experience from the automotive industry, including former employees of Tesla, Ferrari and Jaguar. The first production hall is located on the Automotive Campus in Helmond and was completed at the end of November. The first prototypes will be ready in 2019, while the first models will be delivered in 2020.www.lightyear.one
