LIGTHYEAR

Lightyear 0 : the car with the best drag coefficient in the world

The Dutch company Lightyear is able to be remembered by readers not only for its readiness to produce an electric car with an extensive solar panel on the body surfaces, capable of adding up to 70 km of energy reserve on a sunny day, but also for focusing on reducing of aerodynamic drag. After passing certification tests, this brand's debut model "0" demonstrated an aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.175 - less than any of the mass-produced passenger cars.

Note that in the design phase, Lightyear engineers set the task of keeping this coefficient within 0.19, so, in fact, the plan was exceeded. According to Electrek, a new round of tests has shown that an electric car with solar panels on the body surfaces has an aerodynamic drag coefficient of no more than 0.175. It is worth noting that the previous record at the level of 0.19 belonged to the EV1 electric car of the American corporation GM, which it tried to produce in the nineties of last year. It had a rather controversial appearance, but the creators of Lightyear managed to surpass the achievements of the American market veteran only with a predictable design compromise in the form of an elongated rear overhang, which is also characteristic of another "record holder" - the Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX, but the latter still remains in prototype status.

The German auto giant also reported that it managed to reduce the drag coefficient to 0.17, as a result, the VISION EQXX prototype, with a traction battery with a capacity of less than 100 kWh, demonstrated the ability to overcome up to 1200 km without recharging. Lightyear 0's capabilities in this area are more prosaic, according to the developers. It can travel a thousand kilometers without recharging if this power reserve lasts for several days, traveling daily through the streets of Amsterdam in the summer for work and vice versa, for a distance not exceeding 50 km, at which time the traction battery will be recharged. regularly from solar panels. Traveling on the road at an average speed of 110 km/h, the Lightyear 0 drains the charge from the traction battery after 560 km and the WLTP cruising range does not exceed 625 km.

By the way, the capacity of the traction battery of this electric vehicle is limited to only 60 kWh, so for this indicator, the range characteristics achieved are quite worthy. In addition to good aerodynamics, modest dynamic characteristics also work for the efficiency of an electric car: the car reaches a speed of 100 km/h in 10 seconds and the top speed is limited to 160 km/h. The battery can also be recharged at a domestic outlet from a power source with a power not exceeding 3.7 kW; in this case, each hour of charging replenishes the energy reserve by 32 km.

As the creators of Lightyear 0 emphasize, if you shorten the rear overhang of an electric car by just 15 cm, it will increase the power consumption of the plant by 3%. Traction motors are built into each of the four wheels and high-efficiency inverters are used in the design. The car's mass does not exceed 1575 kg due to the active use of carbon fiber in creating the body panels. The rational use of thermal energy also serves to increase the range of the electric vehicle.

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