Lightyear halted its €250,000 solar EV after three months to chase a sub-$40,000 model

An electric-vehicle startup that builds solar-powered cars — five square meters of panels giving the Lightyear 0 up to 44 miles of range from sunlight alone.

That it can safeguard its vision by abandoning the €250,000 flagship and building Lightyear 2, a sub-$40,000 solar crossover for the mass market, on the lessons of the 0.

The Lightyear 0, revealed in 2019, was meant to be a flagship: a €250,000 (around $270,000) solar-powered car, among the first EVs to go into production with solar capability. The original plan was to produce 946 of them.

Production started roughly three months before January 2023, with contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive building the car. Valmet announced potential layoffs at the facility responsible earlier in January. On January 23, 2023, Lightyear announced a 'strategic restructuring': halting production of the 0, citing several challenges over the past several months, and asking the court to begin 'suspension of payment proceedings' for the company responsible for making it — the corporate structure includes a holding company and another organization.

Lightyear 0 production stopped after about three months, with unclear total output — The Verge reported likely only a handful were ever built. The company refocused on the Lightyear 2, announced at CES 2023, saying it will cost under $40,000, go into production in late 2025 and already had 20,000 pre-orders from fleet owners. It said it hopes to conclude key investments in the coming weeks to scale up to the 2.

The €250,000 flagship sold in token numbers: likely only a handful of 0s were ever built against a 946-car production plan.

The company said it faced several challenges over the past several months and called the halt the way to 'safeguard our vision.'

The sub-$40,000 Lightyear 2 claimed 20,000 pre-orders from fleet owners at CES 2023 — a market orders of magnitude bigger than a luxury halo car.

The entity that built the 0 was being taken into suspension-of-payment proceedings, and manufacturing partner Valmet had already flagged potential layoffs.

Development of the 0 was reframed as 'valuable learnings' to be transferred to the affordable model, preserving the solar mission while cutting the cost base.

A halo product that never reaches volume can sink a young carmaker: Lightyear cut its flagship within a quarter, betting on a mass-market price it still had to fund.

As of January 23, 2023, production of the Lightyear 0 had stopped and suspension-of-payment proceedings were being sought for the entity that built it. Lightyear said it hoped to conclude key investments in the coming weeks in order to scale up to the Lightyear 2, targeted for production in late 2025. It did not respond to The Verge's questions about layoffs, already-produced 0s, or how it plans to fund the 2.