Quote:
Originally Posted by Accordowner
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!
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I suspect that Volkswagen was looking at the European and EPA Urban driving schedules, and their implications with respect to the mass of the vehicle. Especially the EPA's, where the 'CITY' dynamometer data constitutes 55% of the Combined mpg.
And that mass consideration certainly wouldn't be unwelcome, considering the HWY cycle's rolling resistance contribution, discounted as it may be.
That said, I would have stamped them out of steel, en masse, lowered my mpg expectation to 115-mpg, and sold them in volume by the hundreds of thousands, at a modest margin for $12,000, done a public good, and made a few nickels to rub together.