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Old 09-23-2021, 07:14 PM   #274 (permalink)
Isaac Zachary
High Altitude Hybrid
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Gunnison, CO
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Avalon - '13 Toyota Avalon HV
90 day: 40.45 mpg (US)

Prius - '06 Toyota Prius
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Accordowner View Post
Aptera is not necessarily the best design for an ultra efficient, lightweight and functional vehicle we have seen come and then vaporize! Some years back we had the Volkswagen L1 and its successor XL1. These cars were astonishingly efficient, functional but not so outlandishly large and weird looking as this Aptera. In the case of XL1 it was a planned vaporware because it was priced at around $150,000! Reason being; they had to use lots of exotic and expensive material like carbon fiber throughout! This was done to make the vehicle lightweight. But this was obviously a BS made up for the lay public who have no knowledge of the fact that subtle weight savings play a very small part in improving efficiency!
Do you have a better production vehicle that's both ultra efficient, functional and affordable?

The thing with weight savings and aerodynamic drag is that in the begining these didn't play much of a part in efficiency because engines used to be so inefficient. But now that we're getting closer to 90% efficiencies in EV's the only way to improve efficiency will be through aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance improvements.

Of course the other way of thinking is that with engines and motors being so efficient, who cares if the vehicle is a rolling wind brick.
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