Another one goes in the dustbin of EV history

[gone-ot]

..the TANGO reminds me of a fiberglass-enclosed forklift, without the the lift.

[Daox]

Aptera CEO: We’re Not Dead, Just Moving, Okay?

[botsapper]

Instability? go four wheels. Maybe there could be a dead-cat bounce.
(bad economy news analogy)

[Frank Lee]

Aptera:

How long have they been at it?

What have they got to show for it?

How much money has been taken in?

Where has it gone?

[cfg83]

Frank -

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Aptera:

How long have they been at it?

What have they got to show for it?

How much money has been taken in?

Where has it gone?

It did go to the future. In the latest Star Trek movie you can see one putter by at Star Fleet Academy :

Real Electric Car Featured in Star Trek Movie | LiveScience

The new Star Trek will tell the story of the young James T. Kirk and his companions at Star Fleet Academy. Apparently, they will be tooling around the campus on the ghostly silent Aptera electric vehicle

Now here is the very very very big problem with it. The latest movie is an alternate universe where Vulcan is destroyed. That cannot stand. Once this "young character" sub-franchise wears out it's welcome, the last movie (I predict!) will restore the Trek universe to the normal time stream and Vulcan will NOT have been destroyed. Therefore, it will never have happened, sic transit the Aptera will *not* have made it to the future.

CarloSW2

[ConnClark]

Trying to build anything like a car in California is a recipe for failure. The cost of living there is outrageous. There is also ridiculous amount of regulation on business. In an industrial setting there is more paper work and red tape tracking the purchase and owning paint spray guns than if a company were to buy a machine gun.

I can't say I'm sorry to see Aptera go. The fact that they were trying to pass off their car as safe while seeking exemptions from federal crash test safety standards is appalling.

[graydonengineering]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

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.

CA is the most expensive place in the world to manufacture. They have done a very good job of making the state undesirable and unreasonably expensive for industry. Taxes, real estate, energy, state regulations, it's all WAY more costly than ANY other state. Any company is very smart to think twice about starting production there. Many established companies are also moving else ware to save costs. It's not BS, it's just the way it is.

6 months to take concept to production is unrealistic for most any product, especially something as complex as a car. This type of underestimation is VERY common and can be costly. I hope they can keep it together. It sounds like they are moving forward.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by dcb

Sorry for being harsh TJ, but it is like half your posts are of the "nobody will buy that" variety. Problem is that is sort of self-fulfilling,

Honestly, who IS going to buy a 3-wheeler with restrictions, outside of niches like ecomodder ?

What people remember from 3 wheelers is they tip over, and while you can reduce that tendency, the laws of physics haven't changed since the heyday of Reliant and Morgan, so it's never ever going to be as stable as a 4 wheeler.

Add the electric propulsion, including the changed way to fill up, the shape, the limited access into the vehicle, and you have a bunch of weird features that differentiate it a lot from what people see as a car.

It'll be a challenge to get people to accept electric cars.
It could very well be an unsurmountable challenge to get them to (widely) accept anything like the Aptera.

[jakobnev]

nobody will buy that

Except that people were standing in line to buy it. All they had to do was give up on the retarded notion that they were going make it perfect and call it good enough(tm) at some point.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Honestly, who IS going to buy a 3-wheeler with restrictions, outside of niches like ecomodder ?

People who have a burning desire to spend a day at DMV getting a motorcycle license.