The story of the five founders of Lightyear reads like a boy’s book. About five years ago they were brainstorming with each other in a student room, in 2021 there is a hypermodern factory in Helmond with more than 150 employees and the first series of production cars is imminent. We catch up with design boss Koen van Ham and strategy chief Martijn Lammers.
The TU Eindhoven alumni stood on stage like five musketeers in mid-2019 at the presentation of the Lightyear One, ready to take the world by storm. “This is the beginning of a new era in mobility,” said CEO and co-founder Lex Hoefsloot at the time. The idea: an electric car that can pull out of the sun for up to 20,000 kilometers per year thanks to a five-square-metre sunroof. And which also sets new standards in the field of aerodynamics (the Cw value is 0.20) and drive efficiency (four self-developed electric motors in the wheels). The result is a car with a WLTP range of 725 kilometers. We are now two years later and we are close to the moment that the first customers will receive the key to their Lightyear One. That will happen in the last quarter of this year. Time to visit Helmond, where we meet two of the founders of Lightyear: Chief Design Koen van Ham (31) and Chief Strategy Martijn Lammers (31).
You know each other from the Solar Team Eindhoven. How did the idea to translate that student project into an actual car come about?
Koen: “That Solar car was indeed not built for sale. But when we won the Crunchies Award in America in 2015 (a kind of Oscar for technology, ed.), we were increasingly asked when the car would come on the market and what it should cost. That triggered something in me.”
Martijn: “I had a similar moment when we were at a consumer fair in China. There you could taste that this concept can really solve something for people in overcrowded cities, that they don’t have to look for a charging station, but can simply leave their car on the street.”
Such a Solar team consists of dozens of people, but you only went ahead with five people.
Koen: “I think we had the will to really do something with it more than the others. We rented a space with some borrowed money, so we sat together for a year in a loft with a white board, make plans and connect with industry people to test our ideas.”
How did the division of tasks come about?
Koen: “With a business coach, we looked at which role would suit whom. As a result, Lex was put forward as CEO. I like to turn something abstract into something concrete. Styling is of course an important part of this. Because I was not trained for this, we did look for a partner (Granstudio van Lowie Vermeersch, ed.). It is my job to bring in the right DNA, to set out the lines and to guide the studio in the choices. And to involve Lightyear’s technical experts in the process.”
Martijn: “Entrepreneurship was born to me. In addition to my Industrial Design study, I have always had my own companies. That fits in nicely with my role as Strategy Manager, in which I have to translate the technology to the end users. And in which I have to turn Lex’s long-term vision into concrete five-year plans.”
How have you been able to apply what you learned from the Solar project?
Koen: “The basis of how you design a car, the technical architecture of the electricity and the software. But also how you work with a team and how you develop simulations and models.”
Martijn: “You also learn to make compromises. We didn’t have the most aerodynamic car, not the lightest and not the most optimal for solar panels. But it was precisely the way we combined those factors that made our Solar car a winner.”
Is the One’s solar panel comparable to then?
Martin: “Not really. The panel of the Solar car is very fragile. That of the One must be hail-resistant and able to go through the car wash. And of course you have to deal with crash safety. The solar cells are now under a glass top layer that is comparable to a panoramic roof. Underneath is another layer of carbon. We simply buy the cells themselves, they are the same as those used for homes, for example.”
You just mentioned optimal combinations Martijn, I assume that also applies to the battery?
Martijn: “Yes, exactly, it is a combination of range, weight and the interaction with the solar cells. We arrived at a package of about 60 kWh. That weighs about 350 kilos, relatively little. That’s because we’re going for efficiency rather than maximum acceleration, which allowed us to choose lighter battery cells with a higher energy density instead of cells that have less energy and can discharge quickly.”
Koen: “And there are many more variables, you have to make choices all the time. With computer simulations you put together a package that optimally fits your architecture, real customization. For example, you can also calculate exactly how much you would lose aerodynamically if you made the sunroof wider, and what that would or would not bring on balance.”
And then you also have to take the design into account. Or is it mainly form follows function?
Koen: “We derive a lot of aesthetics from its use, from the value it creates. But that’s hard to see over a short period of time. Take the large grille that we like today, which originated from the function of supplying the engine with air. In that respect, cars are a product of what we have learned about them over the past forty years, the shape often originated from certain applications to make the product better. In that sense, at Lightyear, we are looking for a kind of redefinition of future value.”
What do you actually drive yourself?
Koen: “Both a Tesla Model 3. After all, we are working on the future, with an affordable model after the One. Then it is of course interesting to get to know the market leader through and through, as a kind of study object.”
Martijn: “Tesla makes cars that have been developed from scratch as EVs, so you get a product in which all parts work together very nicely. They are not inhibited by a legacy which they must comply. Many car manufacturers struggle in some respects to let go of their fuel-car thinking.”
Koen: “In order to get their existing customers on board, they often have to. As a result, they sometimes make different choices than Tesla, which is going all-in for electric driving and can therefore do some things smarter.”
The Lightyear organization has now grown enormously. Have the relationships changed?
Martijn: “When there are five of us together, we still discuss exactly the same as when we started, in that sense we haven’t changed. In the meantime, all kinds of very experienced people have come on board who know a lot more than we do in certain areas. You have to give them the freedom to fulfill their role. What we do most as founders is to safeguard our initial vision, which course we are heading and why. Lightyear is clearly different from Tesla, that should not be diluted.”
In March, a Swiss family invested 40 million euros and became a shareholder, recently another 20 million was added from the Dutch multinational SHV. Does this change control?
Martijn: “We only work with parties that have the same vision as us. That is one of the main topics of discussion when we sit down with potential investors.”
Do you realize a little bit what you have achieved in a short time?
Martijn: “You try to focus on the smaller steps you take every time, otherwise you will get lost overwhelmed. The longer-term goal is a volume model, the next step towards that is the delivery of the first Ones.”
Koen: “Because you’re so right in the middle of it, you have to learn to be proud of the moment. After all, at the same time you are busy with the future, with things that we can’t show yet.”
Speaking of the near future, I see a car in camouflage outfit there in the workshop.
Koen: “That is prototype 8, in which all the final technology is brought together. It is a kind of validation vehicle to show that the numbers we communicated are actually correct. After this we have to make one last stroke for the outside and inside, although what we have already shown is at 95 percent. There will be some minor adjustments. For example, the knobs on the door are replaced by handles, which has to do with crash test requirements. In addition, the side cameras are positioned slightly differently and the nose is further optimized. After that, everything is prepared for production – which will take place at an external party.”
Does this mean that all the entrance tests have already been done?
Koen: “Part of it still needs to be done, including for the airbag pulse. For that we have to drive a car into a wall. We fall under the small series type approval, that makes it a little easier. You have to meet roughly the same requirements, but testing can be done more with simulations and with fewer physical crash tests. The approval will soon only apply to Europe, so we will also focus on that with the One.”
If we can look into a crystal ball, where will you be in ten years?
Martijn: “I hope we’ll be working on the Lightyear 4 by then. That we were able to convince a lot of people to switch to electric driving with our volume model.”
Koen: “It doesn’t even have to be a car. If in ten years’ time we have launched a second product that has been completely absorbed by the market, I think that would be cool. Clean mobility for everyone, that is our mission.”