This New Electric Car Runs for Months Without Charging and Shakes Up the Entire Car Industry

Today, im talking about the light year, zero its the worlds. First, solar powered long distance passenger car ill tell you now its not just a tesla with a solar roof, hop in as we walk through the ins and outs of the solar ev ill. Also talk about teslas patent to put a solar array on a cyber truck and why tesla and other ev makers should be keeping their eyes on the light year to say that theres a lot of hype around the light year. Zero is an understatement, so whats all the fuss about to start off the cars driving range is 388 miles, which is better than the average battery electric car, which does 230 to 260 miles. If we compare it to its competitor, the tesla model, 3 long range all wheel, drive the light year. 0 offers 4 percent more range, but its more than that believe it or not. The light year 0 can be driven for weeks or even months without charging lets say you live in a sunny state like california or arizona youd, be looking at up to seven months without needed to charge your solar car. The company promises up to 6 480 miles of additional range each year in the sunniest climate. What if you live in seattle, which is known to have far less sun than its southern neighbors? Well, if your average commute is 22 miles every day, you could drive your light year zero up to two months before you need to think about charging and when you do want to charge the car heres another benefit with the light year, zero or zero.

For short, you can use any power out even your normal household source, contrast that to battery electric vehicles, where youre limited to charging stations, whether its public or at home, once you plug your car in the light year, zero can charge 21 miles of range per hour. The xero can also fast charge at up to 323 miles where theres available infrastructure to do so, but remember, the car gets its juice in the sun. The hood roof and lift gate have almost 54 square feet of patented. Double curved solar arrays to absorb sunlight. The solar panels can give your car up to an additional 43 miles of range every day, whether its driven or parked outdoors thats, not a lot, but at least it would cover the average commute plus, if youre stranded in the middle of nowhere. At least you can juice up a little bit even without an outlet nearby. So the idea isnt that the sun provides all the needed charging for the car. But the point is the car can charge slowly using daylight to extend its range and reduce. How often you need to charge so you can see why lightyear says theyve reinvented charging. The zero is also unique for many other evs, in that its the first production passenger car to use in wheel hub motors, its smaller and lighter for the power they deliver and they eliminate the need for drive, shafts and other components. The four motors combined output, 174 horsepower and 1269 pound feet of torque.

It can sprint from zero to 60 in 10 seconds and it pushes a top speed of 100 miles an hour so its clearly not a speed demon, actually its less impressive. When you compare that to tesla model 3 long range, all wheel drive, which reaches 60 and 4.2 seconds, it can reach 145 miles an hour. If, yes, lightyear theyll, say they successfully developed the most efficient electric drivetrain ever and doing so. On a 60 kilowatt hour, battery isnt easy to put in perspective tesla model 3 long range, all wheel drive, runs on an 82 kilowatt hour battery, but because of light years onboard battery, you can get a solid 348 miles on a highway driving at 68 miles an Hour and thats on a cloudy day when the suns not even shiny by the way this car is mirrorless thats right no mirrors. Instead, drivers get a screen on both sides of the interior, where they can see each view via an exterior camera. Now, normally with concept cars in general, theres, usually a slight latency or lag within displays, so hopefully in the production version. There wont be this lag, but well just have to wait and see on that. All that aside, if you have a small garage, you no longer need to worry about swiping your side mirrors when youre parking, because the company has already removed these mirrors for you the form and shape of the xero isnt. Just for looks because of aerodynamics.

Let me tell you why thats important an aerodynamic design helps a car cut through the air as it were, and minimizing the energy loss to air resistance for the best aerodynamic results. You want a car with a low drag coefficient, which means less resistance. The lower the drag coefficient, the more economical the car becomes because it can drive further right now, the worlds most aerodynamic production, car, isnt, tesla model s or even a lucid air, but rather its the mercedes eqs. It has a drag coefficient of 0.20 and the zero breaks the record there, its a drag coefficient of 0.19. This makes it the most aerodynamic family car in the entire market. Aerodynamics is super critical when it comes to evs, because it impacts driving range. Poor design means you get less driving range at the end of the day, and driving range is a hot topic for ev drivers. All this is to say this is why the zero looks the way it does. You can see it resembles a teardrop shape with a long tail as it is evs already weigh considerably more than combustion engine cars youd. Think adding solar panels on top would make the ev car extremely heavy, but actually its, not so with the zero right. Now a typical gas powered compact weighs between twenty nine hundred and thirty two hundred pounds. Half the electric sedans on the road today weigh between thirty three hundred and forty four hundred pounds and some more than others like the mercedes eqv, which weighs five thousand eight hundred pounds.

But the zero with the solar panels weighs a little bit less than thirty. Five hundred pounds so its actually near the lower end of the scale when it comes to weight light year, achieves a low weight, because its shell is carbon. Fiber whats remarkable is that this new technology is now possible. Do a young startup in the netherlands, it was founded by five tech university students a few years ago. It all started when ceo and co founder lex hoffisloot, along with his four friends, were sitting in the kitchen and chatting about building the most sustainable car on the planet. That was back in to time. It was simply an idea, a pie in the sky almost but three years later they had a prototype fast forward to a few years of development. Now, finally, after six years, the zero was ready to these five men. The car is proof that the impossible is actually possible. The xero is officially available for order right now with its first delivery being this november. If you havent yet heard about the light year, zero well youre, not alone, initially the light year, zero was named to let your one. Why did they move back to digit? Well, its not just that it sounded cooler, but they wanted to capture the essence of the company, because true innovation starts from scratch from zero. The zero also represents light years aim for zero emission future, but its not just that in science.

A light year is the distance light travels in a year or 5.88 trillion miles. The unit is used to measure vast distances outer space, but, as it turns out, they say. 5.88 trillion miles is also about the same distance cars travel each year on earth. The company wanted something minimalistic that captured movement flow direction and purpose. The current logo also conveys the suns continuous flow of energy and effortless movement light years. Ceo lex, hoa flute believes that by 2030 we can expect 84 million evs on the road and thats just in europe alone, not even counting the states or elsewhere. The problem is most major. Av companies have a lot of challenges and hurdles when it comes to scaling, for example, access to charging stations cant keep up with the demand for electric cars plus two adding batteries to a car increases. The carbon footprint on the manufacturing stage, which is counterintuitive batteries, also increase the vehicles weight and need for high power charging stations thats. Why light year strategy is to deliver more driving range of less battery, which should reduce weight and carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle, but then theres also the price. Now you can configure zero on the automakers website, which you want to do if youre able to doubt the cash, but the car will set you back over 265 thousand dollars, thats a quarter of a million dollars in case you dont register that its extremely steep for A car thats in the equivalent categories – the tesla model 3, which starts out at just 20 of that price, solar technology in general, sounds promising, but the price is a real kicker, especially considering this is the new launch and the car doesnt have a track record of Reliability yet that all said the xero is said to be proof of a concept to show that technology is workable and also to gain real world performance data on its solar panels.

Thats why the xero is a limited volume production, its scheduled to end in production in finland this autumn and first delivery is expected to be november theres a catch. The company will manufacture only a limited number to be precise, just 946 units of the zero, but the zero is not coming to north america. The light year two will be available in america in the future. The company has already started teasing the public about its second solar ev model designed for high volume production right now. The working title for the next vehicle is called light year. Two, this one will be a compact crossover which makes a lot of business sense because crossovers are among the most popular cars, believe it or not. Light year, 2 is expected to start at 32, 000, far cry from light year 0, to say the least. The affordable pricing will make the car more realistic option for the general mass to help take the car mainstream, but it wont enter production until late 2020 or early 2025.. Now, if youre thinking light year, zero is the first solar car ever well thats not entirely correct. Would it surprise you to hear that the first solar powered car was introduced more than 70 years ago? In 1955, a general motors employee, william g cobb, demonstrated the worlds first, solar powered automobile at the general motors power, rama, auto show in chicago. This car was made of balsa wood and it was aptly named the sun mobile, since it was just a 15 inch.

Miniature model, needless to say, it couldnt be driven by a person. Although gm didnt continue to develop the concept, cobbs model introduced, the field of photovoltaics to a car show that was attended by 2 million people, photovoltaic science of converting light into electricity using specific semiconductor materials. Its a physical and chemical process, how exactly do solar panels work on a solar car in general, the solar vehicle uses self contained photovoltaic cells to propel itself using solar energy. Solar vehicles usually contain a rechargeable battery that stores energy from solar cells and captures kinetic energy from breaking through regeneration and the light year. Zero follows a similar approach. Did you know that officially tesla filed a patent back last year involving putting a solar array on the cyber truck now technically, the cyber truck is set to enter production in early 2023., neither tesla or elon musk confirmed that the all electric pickup will use solar panels, But then again they havent denied it either for now well have to wait until next year to see the actual truck, but it wouldnt be too surprising for a company like tesla to explore the solar panel route.