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Headline: Electric Car Prototype That Refuels Itself With The Power Of The Sun To Be Released In 2020

Caption: The world's first electric car that powers itself solely from the sun is set to be available in 2020. Lightyear, a Dutch startup, has announced its plans to be the first automaker in the world to launch a solar car to the market with a leasing option, and it plans to do it by 2020. “We are not only building a car, we are building a system,” CEO and co-founder Lex Hoefsloot explains. Its inaugural vehicle, Lightyear One, sells itself as “the electric car that charges itself”, and it promises 800km range and up to 10,000km on solar power alone per year if driven in the Netherlands. “There’s not many electric cars because there’s no infrastructure, and there’s no infrastructure because there’s no electric cars. You can kind of [circumvent] that process by making an electric car that doesn’t rely on infrastructure.” Its body is touted to be lighter than the norm, with an aerodynamic design and cameras in place of side-view mirrors. A streamlined undercarriage, air suspension system to reduce drag, and other design elements aim to minimize the car’s energy consumption. Hoefsloot elaborates that with a lighter body, the car can run on a smaller battery but still achieve identical range. With a more compact battery that weighs less, the vehicle consumes less energy, thus creating this “feedback loop that keeps going.” Lightyear’s website includes a cool calculator that allows anyone from all over the world to work out just how many charges they might need according to distance traveled. The Lightyear One will not come cheap; prices are set to be around €119,000 (US$135,510).

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PersonInImage: Lightyear One