The bankrupt solar car company Lightyear in Helmond is restarting in a slimmed-down form, reports the curator. Part of the company’s stocks will be sold in the near future, including a number of show models of the first model Lightyear 0.
A special auction will be held this month to earn money to pay off creditors. On a viewing day on Wednesday 19 April, interested parties can come and see the cars in person, curator Reinoud van Oeijen says.
Later, the Lightyears manufactured in Finland will also be auctioned. “It concerns two models. These cars will arrive in Helmond at a later date. Yet another model has to be retrieved from the US”.
Restart plan approved
It was already announced in February that Lightyear was to restart. A group of private investors raised eight million euros in one day to make this possible. Then, there was a small hurdle to jump. The curator had to approve the restart plan first.
Curator Van Oeijen says he has given his approval now. “It was a very complicated process’, he says in a statement. “With many different interests and a complicated structure, it was not easy. However, we were able to do this in a relatively short time.
Eight million doesn’t seem like much for a restart. “The new company can use this for up to a year. More money will eventually be needed to further develop the concept. The Lightyear 2 should roll off the production line in about three years”, the curator says.
Cheaper solar car
The solar car company went bankrupt at the end of January. The production of the solar car Lightyear 0 became too expensive. The restart will be done by a completely new company. They will build the Lightyear 2, a cheaper version of the solar car.
According to earlier reports, the new company will employ about a hundred employees. Originally, more than six hundred people worked for the company. “We have tried to represent the interests of employees from the Netherlands and abroad as well as possible”, says Van Oeijen. “At the same time, we also tried to limit the damage to the creditors as much as possible. This made the restart possible”.
‘Mismanagement’
All patents of Lightyear and solar cell subsidiary Lightyear Layer from Venray will also be transferred to the new company with a new name: ‘Lightyear Technologies’.
An investigation into part of the management team of the bankrupt company is still ongoing. Curator Van Oeijen previously accused the top of mismanagement. The former management team published the annual accounts for the 2020 financial year too late. Whether the directors can be held liable for the bankruptcy is still being investigated.
Source: Omroep Brabant
Translator: Martijn
