Another one goes in the dustbin of EV history - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

botsapper · 08-15-2011, 01:19 PM

At least their founders have integrity and in the long run, will definitely comeback in the near future.
Aptera refunding all deposits for its ultra efficient three-wheeler

Old Tele man · 08-15-2011, 02:20 PM

...uh, 'sad' new automotive saying?: "...WIN one, LOSE too..."

cfg83 · 08-15-2011, 04:26 PM

botsapper -

That's a shame. They didn't even have a chance to compete in the marketplace (yet?). Would have made an uber-commuter.

CarloSW2

Ryland · 08-15-2011, 07:57 PM

But they didn't say that they were not going to build the car, they said that it was a book keeping issue that was not working out and that they were still getting new investors, so altho I'm sure that this was not great for their stock prices it did not sound like they as a company were going under.

Old Tele man · 08-15-2011, 08:41 PM

...since *when* have profit-makers willingly given money back?

...sounds like something the gov't SCC people might have caused to happen.

Ryland · 08-15-2011, 09:04 PM

Maybe I'm the only one who read the link.
But most of the time when you make a deposit the money is put in to holding, so that money was never in the hands of Aptera, it was in the hands of their credit card prossesing company and they tend to charge large amounts of money for things that should be really simple, so I could see this move as being as simple as that they didn't want to pay extra fees, because I'm sure that the credit card company is the only one who has made a profit yet.
If it was a matter of shutting down, there would be little reason to give anything back to anyone, people who put deposits down would be the last on the list when it comes to debt collection.

tjts1 · 08-15-2011, 09:11 PM

Good riddance.

dcb · 08-15-2011, 09:19 PM

Why? Anything besides mentally challenged subjective opinions to offer?

Patrick · 08-15-2011, 09:41 PM

Based on their performance at the X-prize, they had some major problems to solve. So they probably need some additional time to get ready for prime-time.

Frank Lee · 08-15-2011, 10:54 PM

I can't shake the feeling they were more about raising (and spending on themselves) investment capital than building vehicles. And my mental challenges don't have anything to do with that (I think....).

I've been getting Aptera email updates... just got one that has some B.S. story about NOW "realizing certain things about the economics/logistics of building vehicles in CA" and now they're looking at eastern U.S. sites. Give me a freeking break.