Lightyear sacrifices its flagship to keep its dream alive

Just two months after gloriously celebrating the first vehicle rolling off the assembly line at Valmet Automotive in Finland, the Lightyear 0 has been declared bankrupt. The district court in ’s-Hertogenbosch has granted Lightyear’s request to suspend all payments for Atlas Technologies, the subsidiary responsible for the production of its former flagship. Instead, the Helmond-based solar car trailblazer wants to go all-in on model 2, its affordable alternative for a wider audience. In the coming period, the court-appointed trustee will focus on the position of the employees and creditors as well as assess if and how the Lightyear concept can be continued.

“Our vision is to offer clean mobility for everyone, everywhere,” reads the press release following the Lightyear 0 discontinuation. “To make this a reality, we as a company are overcoming many challenges. In the past months, we’ve worked hard to deal with those challenges. To safeguard our vision, we had to decide to redirect our focus and resources completely toward the Lightyear 2. This decision wasn’t taken lightly as it impacts all who embarked on this journey with us. Those are of course our employees, who work day in and day out to make solar mobility a reality, alongside our investors, clients, suppliers and the government.”