Featured Aptera EV Update

you could probably drive it on the two rear wheels

if it could fly, i might buy one

 

We have a recent discussion going on here,
Anyone else excited about the Aptera Launch edition? | PriusChat

 

When this company/design was liquidated / belly up (iirc sometime prior to 2010ish) about 1½ decades ago, us folks that had $500 deposits on the "soon to be in production Aptera" felt lucky to get our money back.
Disappointments of Future Passed: Aptera to Refund Customer Deposits on 2e EV
Thinking of the common house fly bashing itself aimlessly against the inside of a car's windshield in order to escape . . . . doing the same thing over & over as tho there will be a different result? So, what's different from back then compared to now.
Modernly we have cars that do NOT have 3 points that hit pot holes . . . . cars have just to points & 2 wheel motorbikes have just one. Pull up to a McDonald's drive in-window, & you DON'T have to get out of the car because your door is right there ... unlike the Aptera wheels out there on a boom. Certainly it looks nice & cool & may be very efficient if it ever made it into production ... but a glorified Cushman 3 wheeler is not what's on most folks mind for transportation.
Calling it 'solar' is a stretch too. Sure with ideal summer sun, flat ground, cloudless long days, in southern hemispheres, might give some reasonable regen. but up north, short days, rain & clouds, low northern azimuth, + running a cabin heater - welcome to a more realistic reality.
Still, i wish 'em well.
.

 

i wonder what the big investors see

 

Founders did go and start a successful battery company in between the Aptera attempts.

FLUX | Flux Power Holdings Inc. Stock Price & News - WSJ

 

Everything has pros and cons. There are abilities the commercially available Apteras will have that no other car currently has. A 400 mile range for one. Yes, winter will bring that range number down. But I'll be very interested to see people comparing the range to the longest range Teslas.

Also, with a more efficient driver train, the charing time will be much quicker. Need 100 miles? The same charger, be it a level 1, a level 2 or a DC quick charge station of 40KW will all give those 100 miles to the Aptera in half the time it takes any other EV out there.

And sure, the solar won't work in Alaska in the winter. But the times it does work will be amazing for those who can benefit from it. No one has any chance of getting the same results by strapping a solar panel to the top of their Tesla.

 

Aptera won’t be the only one with a 400 mile EV. Lucid and Mercedes both sell one.

 

I would be more impressed with:

Source: Solar Electric Skateboard Hits Kickstarter (video) - Geeky Gadgets

. . .
The YoungBoard only requires four hours of sunlight to fully charge the onboard Lithium polymer battery and is then capable of reaching a maximum speed of 30 km/h and offers a range of up to 16 km.
. . .​

It would solve the 'last mile' problem when the nearest EVSE is a mile away.

Bob Wilson

 

True. I see I missed that. But on the other hand we're talking $33K compared to over $80 and up. Even a Tesla with nearly half the range costs more.

As you've said, to each his own. I'm personally impressed with Aptera, but not so much with any other vehicle offering.

With the "last mile" problem you could also add a gasoline powered skateboard for those that run out of gas.

Personally I've both ran out of gas in a gasoline powered car and have ran out of electricity in an EV. And yes, the EV was more of a hassle as they don't sell "electricty" cans at WalMart. But that doesn't mean I'd never buy an EV again.

 

My gasoline studies required running out of gas over 40 times with a planned, spare gallon of the next gasoline to test (see Priuschat archives.) I also ran out in both the Gen 3 and Prius Prime (DO NOT RUN OUT OF GAS IN PRIME WITHOUT A WAY TO DO A 12 V POWER RESET!)

In my Tesla, I have once gotten low enough to use a 110-120 VAC outlet to reach the next L2 charging location. I've also carried a spare 1 gallon gas can in the 2014 BMW i3-REx used once when at 2 AM a planned truck stop was found closed.

Bob Wilson

 

The 400 mile Aptera is the one they start production with. There is 250 mile for lowest price one, plus 600 and 1000 mile options.

Miles per hour charging is over 50 with Level 2 AC.

 

400 miles is great, but it looks more like an around town car to me. maybe a florida development to replace the golf cart.
then the solar would give you completely free transportation

 

I don't think they are planning on selling many of those real long range ones. The planned production schedule is 400, 250, 600, and then 1000. The bigger batteries are probably more for those that can take more advantage of the solar. The amount of PV coverage is also selectable. Though the range could be a consideration for those that simply can't charge every day. A thousand miles could be good for a month for many.

 

That's a use case for it. A commuter car. Many places are sunny enough you may not need to hardly ever plug in. And even if you live in where it's overcast all the time, the efficiency makes this car viable to charge off of 120V. This is the kind of car an appartment dweller can commute with.

Thinking of all the college kids around here, this would be a perfect EV for them right now since there are only two (IIRC) EV charging places on campus and no rental housing with level 2 charging that I know of. But a lot of apartments and homes do have a 120V outlet on the front of each parking spot (for engine block heaters).

The other use case is a single person or couple's road trip EV. You could do a 600 or 700 mile drive and only have to stop to charge for an hour once. In the 1000 mile version it'll require zero stops.

 

any pics of storage space for a long road trip?

 

Their site is claiming 25 cu.ft.

 

right .... the stop in the ditch - bottom of the canyon - or oncoming head on traffic falling asleep.
as one who's done many a cannonball run ... it's risky at best. from John Selden's Table-Talk (c. 1654) "do as I say - not as I do"

 

looks very spacious, i prefer the large footprint to height