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Helmond and Amsterdam, April 20, 2022 – Lightyear, the high-tech company developing the world’s first long-range solar car, is partnering with The Sharing Group to supply 5,000 Lightyear Two vehicles to its car-sharing platform MyWheels, the market leader of shared cars in the Netherlands. This high volume series will be available to the MyWheels fleet as of 2025. In addition, in 2023, the Lightyear One, Lightyear’s premier statement car, will also be added to the MyWheels platform. With this partnership, Lightyear and The Sharing Group enable Lightyear’s mission to bring clean mobility to everyone, everywhere and offer grid-independency to users of MyWheels.
“The future of mobility is not only about the vehicle itself but also how we use it. Car sharing services are an example of how the market is evolving to find new, more sustainable ways to keep people mobile without owning a car themselves”, says Lex Hoefsloot, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear. “By offering Lightyears through a car-sharing service like MyWheels, we are able to enact our mission quicker and more efficiently. This partnership is an exciting step towards a cleaner future, and we are proud to be teaming up with MyWheels and The Sharing Group.”
Lightyear One is Lightyear’s first model that will only be produced in a limited quantity. Adding the Lightyear One to the MyWheels car-sharing platform makes this innovative car accessible to the broader public. The Lightyear One will go into production in late summer 2022, and first customer deliveries will begin by the end of the year. MyWheels is establishing a sharing campaign for loyal members to be able to drive a Lightyear One as early as 2023.
Lightyear Two will be the mass-market model of the technology manufacturer and will go to market in 2024/2025 with a starting price of 30,000 euros. Next to the environmental benefits of solar electric vehicles, the long-term economics are advantageous as well. Vehicles like the Lightyear One and Two generate power themselves and have less moving parts than other cars so their maintenance and operation costs will be comparatively low.
Leading the market in car-sharing
MyWheels is the Dutch market leader in the field of round trip car sharing. The company already started in 1993 as one of the pioneers in car-sharing and has ramped up its growth over the last two years. With cross-country coverage of 2,500 cars in the Netherlands. Karina Tiekstra, CEO of MyWheels: “MyWheels is strongly committed to electrification and fifty percent of the shared car fleet is already electric. With the arrival of Lightyear on the platform, our users will get to experience the future of mobility firsthand. This is a great step in our mission to keep the Netherlands mobile with one million cars.”
MyWheels is part of The Sharing Group. Henri de Jong, Founder and CEO of The Sharing Group: “The Sharing Group invests in innovative technology, energy and mobility companies that believe in the power of sharing and making services that were previously only available to the happy few widely accessible. The partnership between Lightyear and MyWheels fits really well with our joint ambition to accelerate the transition of mobility and energy. The fact that two Dutch impact driven scale-up companies are collaborating to bring this new solution to the market makes me really proud.”
