Lightyear reemerges as new slimmed down company, will continue developing its solar EV
Months after officially declaring bankruptcy but vowing to continue development of its mass-market solar EV, Lightyear has restarted its business as a new company with a significantly smaller team. In order to raise additional funds to continue its quest to bring affordable SEVs to the masses, Lightyear plans to auction off the few models of the Lightyear 0 that were originally built.
In the exciting by recently ill-fated segment of solar EVs, Netherlands-based startup Lightyear has been one of the most exciting to follow. Its original concept evolved into the Lightyear 0, which actually reached production for a fleeting moment in late 2022, as the company began to tease its second, more affordable model – the Lightyear 2.
Mere weeks after given a select group (including yours truly) a sneak peak of the 2 at CES in January, Lightyear suddenly declared bankruptcy relinquishing its business to a Dutch legal and tax firm. The sun appeared to had unfortunately set on the solar EV startup, who was previously touting some of the most impressive in-house technology in the segment, falling just short of delivering one of the most aerodynamic passenger vehicles ever made.
In February, however, a ray of hope shined through the dark clouds over Lightyear HQ as it vowed to restructure into a new company and continue its work. The startup stated that Individual Investors Group (IIG) let by initiator Arnoud Aalbersberg, was helping facilitate a relaunch by raising enough funding to act as a base for the new company, raising 8 million euros in a single day.
While Lightyear is by no means out of the woods yet, it has officially been reborn and will continue its fight to bring the Lightyear 2 solar EV to production. Here’s the latest.
Lightyear to auction of 0 SEVs to pay its creditors
According to a press release from the startup today, it has achieved a restructuring plan that has satisfied all parties in involved, relaunching as an entirely new company called Lightyear Technologies. Following the initial bankruptcy declaration in January, Lightyear’s parent company, Atlas Technologies Holding followed suit today – a necessary step to allow for Lightyear to be reborn as the new entity.
Through the restructuring, the startup’s IP and a separate solar panel division will become part of Lightyear Technologies, combining for a team of just about 100 employees – significantly smaller than the 600 on staff in the company’s first iteration. CEO and cofounder Lex Hoefsloot spoke to the rebirth:
I am very happy that we managed to complete the restructuring, which we believe is in the interest of the sustainable success of Lightyear, taking into account the interests of its stakeholders. The whole team and many of our stakeholders have worked hard to make this possible. I would like to explicitly thank all of them.
The new company was made possible by some Lightyear’s largest investors, including SHV, DELA, Eikenbosch Holding, Invest-NL, BOM, and LIOF in addition to IIG mentioned above. The goal now is to continue to limit damage done to creditors that led to the bankruptcy filing.
With the successful restructuring and a new round of funding, Lightyear states it can once again trek forward with a focus on the aforementioned Lightyear 2 solar EV, but it will need to raise additional funding to succeed.
In the meantime, bankruptcy administrator Reinoud van Oeijen said some of the company’s stocks will be sold in the near future and will include the sale of the few Lightyear 0 demo vehicles that were built. Later this month, there will be a special online auction to raise money to pay back the creditors. It will be preceded by a viewing day on April 19, when interested parties can come and see the solar EVs in person. Van Oeijen spoke:
We have tried to represent the interests of employees from the Netherlands and abroad as well as possible. At the same time, we also tried to limit the damage to the creditors as much as possible. This way, there was a chance of a restart.
It was a complex issue we were facing with many stakeholders. Fortunately, the restart has been achieved within a reasonable short period of time and everyone now has clarity.
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Elon Musk went on an all-day Tesla self-driving propaganda spree ahead of the company’s earnings, which are expected to be rough.
It’s well known these days that Musk doesn’t often comment on Tesla as he is busy with his government work, buying elections, and running several private companies.
Some Tesla shareholders argue that the CEO is neglecting the public company, which saw its stock tumble this year.
That wasn’t the case today.
Musk went on a tweeting spree about Tesla, specifically about Tesla’s self-driving effort.
Here are some of the highlights:
Tesla posted that “one day” its vehicles will drive themselves from the factory to new customers and Musk couldn’t stop himself and had to say that it will happen “this year”:
Like most of Musk’s self-driving comments, this one is hard to take seriously since he said the exact same thing in 2018 and claimed it would happen in 2019.
The tweet he was responding to has been deleted by the author, but it asked when Tesla vehicles would drive themselves to customers:
Spoiler alert: regulators are not the bottleneck here.
Musk then claimed that “Tesla self-driving will be far safer than human driving”:
The problem here is that Musk has claimed on many occasions that Tesla’s FSD is already safer than humans, like in 2023: “Supervised FSD is vastly safer than human driving.”
There’s no data that supports that. Tesla refuses to share any data regarding its self-driving program and instead, the company shares a very misleading quarterly “safety report.”
Considering Tesla’s FSD requires supervision from a driver at all times, the driver’s supervision and attention help reduce accidents that the self-driving system wouldn’t necessarily prevent.
Musk also shared positive experiences of a few Tesla owners, including a Tesla engineer and Joe Rogan:
As we often highlight, Tesla’s FSD can be impressive to use, but the problem is when you compare it to its promise, which is in the name: full self-driving.
Under its current form, FSD is still a level 2 advanced driver assist system, and not self-driving, but Musk said that it would become truly “unsupervised” self-driving every year for the last 8 years.
Therefore, it’s not what Musk has been promising buyers for years and as for when it is coming, he has been consistently wrong and has asked owners to rely on anecdotal experiences as Tesla refuses to release any data.
We previously reported that Musk has twice positively referred to a crowdsourced Tesla FSD dataset that shows Tesla’s FSD v13 on HW4 is achieving fewer than 500 miles between critical disengagements.
Tesla has previously stated that FSD must achieve 700,000 miles between critical disengagements to be safer than humans.
The spree of Tesla FSD tweets comes as Tesla is preparing to report its Q1 2025 earnings next week, which should be difficult after the automaker reported its lowest delivery results in three years.
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Texas is No. 1 in the US for wind and solar capacity, but the Texas Senate just passed a bill that aims to kneecap clean energy with an industry-killing review process. Will the Texas House pass it, too?
The Texas Senate today passed SB 819, which creates new restrictions on the development of wind and solar energy under the guise of “protecting” wildlife. The restrictions don’t apply to any other forms of energy.
Texas uses an extraordinary amount of power, and renewables play a big part in supplying that power. The Texas Tribune reported in March that “ERCOT [the Texas grid] predicts that Texas’ energy demand will nearly double by 2030, with power supply projected to fall short of peak demand in a worst-case scenario beginning in summer 2026.” That’s because of extreme weather, population growth, and crypto-mining facilities.
As of February, Texas increased its energy supply by 35% over the last four years, and 92% of that supply came from solar, wind, and battery storage.
Solar is the largest source of energy generating capacity that has been added to the Texas grid. That’s because it’s cost-effective and it can be deployed quickly. So if new solar projects are kneecapped, power demand will outstrip supply in the Lone Star State.
Daniel Giese, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)’s Texas director of state affairs, stated after the Senate’s vote, “With energy demand rising fast, Texas needs every megawatt it can generate to keep the lights on and our economy strong. We cannot afford to turn away from the pro-energy and pro-business policies that made the Lone Star State the energy capital, but that’s exactly what SB 819 does. We urge the Texas House to reject this bill.”
Less clean energy would also jack up electricity bills for Texans, and rural areas would lose billions in landowner revenue and tax payments. Every time a wind farm or solar farm is installed on rural land, it brings a lot of money to the community that surrounds it. A January report estimated that existing and planned solar, wind, and battery storage projects will contribute $20 billion in local tax revenue and $29.5 billion in landowner payments.
What’s especially baffling about this bill is that it flies in the face of a core Texas value – keeping the government out of private property decisions – yet it does precisely the opposite.
Environment Texas executive director Luke Metzger issued the following response: ‘By making it much more difficult to build wind and solar energy in Texas, this bill threatens to increase pollution, increase blackouts and increase our electric bills.
“Under the guise of helping land and wildlife, SB 819 would create a discriminatory and capricious permitting standard that could grind renewable energy development to a halt.
“We urge the House of Representatives to reject this bill and instead support policies that promote a cleaner, more sustainable energy future for all Texans.”
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I find this bill ludicrously masochistic. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and please keep it civil.
Read more: A vast 600 MW Texas solar farm just hit a major milestone [update]
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
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Blink Charging’s (Nasdaq: BLNK) new partnership with Eco-Movement will make Blink’s EV chargers a lot easier to find across multiple platforms.
Eco-Movement is a global platform that collects, refines, and maintains a massive real-time database of public and semi-public EV charging locations and pricing data. That info is used by some of the biggest names in the industry. Now, Blink is tapping into Eco-Movement’s platform to make its chargers way easier to find – whether you’re searching on Google Maps, asking your voice assistant, using a charging app, or navigating from your car’s dashboard.
As new Blink chargers come online, Eco-Movement updates its database of EV charging locations in real-time, and that information is incorporated by mapping and charger-finder apps. That way, EV drivers are kept up to date.
Mike Battaglia, president and CEO at Blink, said, “The leading mapping apps trust Eco-Movement and its state-of-the-art, quality-checked, and constantly updated data. We are excited to be teaming with them to ensure drivers worldwide can easily find our chargers and receive up-to-the-minute updates on charger availability.”
Eco-Movement’s global database includes detailed charging point info – like addresses, operators, pricing, accessibility, truck compatibility, and real-time availability – along with roaming partners, membership rates, and payment options.
“Ultimately, this data will help EV drivers all over the world to find their next charging stop, which is a mission we share with Blink,” said Roderick van den Berg, CEO of Eco-Movement.
Read more: Blink Charging will more than triple EV charger production with a new factory
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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