- Student
- 30/05/2022
Behind the scenes at College Tour
Yesterday evening’s episode of TV-show College Tour was a special one: young TU/e alumnus Lex Hoefsloot was the main guest in the Evoluon building in Eindhoven. The founder and CEO of Lightyear answered questions from host Twan Huys and a large number of students, and the entrepreneurial mechanical engineer did so in an engaging manner. Cursor was there and also saw what didn’t make it to air.
Some hundred students are waiting on the ground floor of the Evoluon for Lex Hoefsloot to enter the building in the first Lightyear One solar car that went into production. It’s a special moment, and after host Twan Huys opens the program he asks whether students are allowed to take a seat behind the wheel. A relaxed Hoefsloot agrees to it, after which mechanical engineering student Fredrik Winnubst from Delft gets inside the car. He only got his driver’s license one week ago, and he is very exited about starting Lightyear’s engine and driving it forward for twenty centimeters. “The driver’s seat immediately feels great, but Lex and I have about the same physique,” he says as he savors the moment a bit longer.
Car virus
The interview continues on the top floor of the round building. They talk about Hoefsloot’s childhood and his student days, about the people that matter to him, and, naturally, about his solar car.
They look at the car designs Hoefsloot made when he was a child. “I stopped obsessing over cars when I was twelve, but professor Maarten Steinbuch is responsible for injecting me with the car virus again when I went to TU/e.” The story will be familiar to most people by now: Hoefsloot founded Solar Team Eindhoven with some fellow students and built solar car Stella, which won the World Solar Challenge in Australia in 2013. “If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have founded Lightyear,” Hoefsloot says. When asked about the best decision he ever made, he answers “founding STE with my friend Roy Cobbenhagen.” But he also talks about the time he became a member of a student association and decided to leave. “That too was a good decision.”
Man’s world
College Tour always wants to know about the guest’s history with drinking, drugs and rock & roll. Hoefsloot doesn’t have any exciting stories when it comes to any of these things. “Did you ever chase women?” Hoefsloot: “Well, men still made up ninety percent of the student population at TU/e when I was there.” Huys says that this is still reflected in today’s audience. He insists several times until the first women stands up to ask a question. The students in the hall aren’t just from Eindhoven, incidentally, but also from Utrecht, Nijmegen, Delft and Enschede, and they all have a question ready.
The first female audience member who would like to ask a question wants to know what Lightyear’s expected sales numbers are. So far, 150 cars have been sold, and car-sharing platform MyWheels and LeasePlan have ordered five hundred cars. The Netherlands Vehicle Authority won’t allow the cars to go on the road yet. “But we’ve been in contact with that organization for a long time, and we’re confident that we’ll get our first license plate in June. They make us carry out bizarre tests with five prototypes; driving over a hill and hitting the ground hard, driving over a steel beam.”
Hoefsloot answers Huys’ question about financing as follows: “Lightyear has raised 150 million euros since 2016. That money isn’t fully spent yet.” He remains neutral when it comes to competitors and deals with other car suppliers, and Huys asks him to explain why. “Trust is hard to earn but easy to lose,” the car designer says.
Key figures
There are short videos with some of the most important people in Hoefsloot’s life, although his parents and girlfriend and colleague Tessie Hartjes are also present in person. We see meteorologist Helga van Leur (“Lex is not a Yes, but kind of person, but an All right, let’s figure out how kind of person, a true optimist”) and Elon Musk at the start of his Tesla adventure. Feike Sijbesma, former CEO at DSM and special corona envoy for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, gives Hoefsloot advice on how to run a multi-million-euro company. Sijbesma says that Hoefsloot needs to develop himself more and faster than the company he leads.
Hoefsloot knows by now that building a prototype is relatively easy. “Starting a production line is ten times more difficult.” He mostly wants to focus on upscaling Lightyear, so that he can bring an affordable version of the car, starting at around 30,000 euros, for the average European to the market. He doesn’t see any obstacles. “You can do some pretty big things in a small country.”
You can watch the episode of Sunday 29 May here.
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