Aptera's back...Solar Electric Vehicle
 

Glad to see that sexy body again?! Aptera Motors has introduced its first solar electric vehicle (sEV) that boasts a 1,000 miles of range on a single charge. It also has three square meters of integrated solar panels that could extend another 45 miles of range or meet your daily commuter travels by sun alone! The liquid-cooled electric motors could reach 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds and attain a top speed of 110 mph. It could be ordered with FWD or a vectorized torque control AWD. And its 'iconic' aerodynamic body made of lightweight composites stronger than steel, allowing its strong & flowing body shape to slip through the air with a drag coefficient (Cd) of .13.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNjUdTJjiNk

https://www.aptera.us/

Pricing is important. Other news sites quote "The price will range between $25,900 and $46,000".

I'd be very curious if they could meet those price points and ship a product.

I'll predict failure like I always do with regards to new automotive ventures.

The Chevy Bolt has 4 wheels and a 260 mile EV range, and can be had for $26k now.

I wasn't interested first time around, but really want one now.

I guess it's taken a decade for the world to catch up to the design. Goofy headlights gone, decent price for the specs, useful onboard solar, looks good in non-white.

Given the stated performance, I'd view it as a daily eco sports car that out performs a 86/MX5 for similar money, and with a bigger boot (than the MX5).

Narrow body means no more parking lot dings and scuffs. Do your shopping and come back to a car with more fuel than when you arrived :)

It won't sell well of course because people are afraid of anything even the slightest bit different.

I also really like their 'right to repair' policy.

Please please please can I invest or put down a large deposit?

Sure pricing is very important, and so is the suitability to a less "specialized" use, but as a technology showcase (and as a toy for celebrity EV endorsers to brag about) it may eventually succeed.

Real electric vehicles plug in, carry stuff and cost less.

I'm hoping to buy aptera-coins when they re-launch as a blockchain company.

Aptera plugs in, has a huge boot and claims 100w/km. It's as wide as a Model S and as long as a 3.

Much of the boot space in a conventional car is lost to the suspension towers so Aptera is probably closer to a full size boot than it first appears. Just another way in which current car designs are inefficient.

Cost appears competitive for the performance and range.

I like the design. Does anybody know if they have a working prototype or is it just CG graphics?

If that was CG, it was dang impressive.

Hmm. I wonder if turning the insight in to a trike would make much difference, aerodynamically. I suppose without the front wheels sticking out, it would look more like an XR3. A bit.

I missed out on an incomplete XR3 being sold locally, for $1500. I was quite upset at the time. Still annoys me.

It's much easier to accomplish surprising utility when the class of vehicle is exempt from many safety requirements imposed on 4-wheeled vehicles.

If anyone wants to gamble, I'm willing to bet $100 the company will not be selling vehicles 6 years from now.

Hmm...meaning none are produced in the meantime or that they will be belly up within 6 years?

Yes.

They probably still have the Aptera 2 Series molds from 2008-2013. The Aptera 3, updated with newest motors, batteries, inlaid flexible solar array film, LED lighting, cameras, and original owners taking it back with crowdfunding campaign. Hoping a much better reintroduction and success of that sexy body, especially in the upcoming Green New Deal era.

...still so unique, the owners could try the Shark Tank, for viral marketing and serious partnerships.

Sounds like aptera 3, the search for more money.
If they ever produce anything it will be over in china.

If Star Trek and Star Fleet Academy envisage an Aptera in the future. It would probably be an old and rare 'classic car' by then. https://media.aintitcool.com/media/l...rekSetBig4.JPG

They're taking $100 deposits, like Arcimoto FUV and Tesla Cybertruck. But the latter two are publically traded.

The last few days I've been trying to find a better picture of the Metro/Lancair. I'm sure more have been posted here.

https://flycorvair.files.wordpress.c.../04/135435.jpg
https://flycorvair.files.wordpress.c.../04/135435.jpg

Both Google's embedded search and DDG point to Interesting Aerodynamic Cars but take you to the last of 93 pages instead of the one[s] they are on.
_______________

(At this moment Starship is 27 minutes away from the hop and swan dive. )

There was the “Dolphin” Insight that was a 3 wheel conversion

Had pretty excellent specs from what I remember

https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threa...phin-ev.70278/

The wheel count is somewhere between car and bike, so it shouldn't be a surprise that functionality (safety etc) is somewhere in the middle too.

Close, but...it's a Geo Metro. And it still has 4 wheels.

https://ecomodder.com/blog/dave-clou...lphin/?pid=143

I was thinking something more refined and less...long.

Track day for Aptera. Just like Tesla's viral 'ludicrous' acceleration, Aptera recording 'marketable' 0-60mph & braking numbers and even taking the infamous 'moose-handling' tests... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMMpS7uJJo

If those track markers are where I think they are then my leaf with the battery at 38% and 46F, air temperature 42F, wet roads which is rare but realistic, spare tire, jack, Dewalt 1/2 inch impact driver, evse, 100 feet of 12 gauge cord, various adaptors, 50 feet of 3/8 steel cable, tool bag, standard weapons package appears to be significantly faster.
Their handeling test wasn't very confidence inspiring.
So far it's living (which is a surprise) exactly up to expectations (not a surprise).
When they build the thing knowing they don't need an anti sway bar, then are like "we need an anti sway bar" it exposes their hubris. I wonder what else it's lacking.

If gas hits $4 a gallon this might have a chance.

Sure looks to me like the front right wheel might have come off the ground at 1:13 during the moose test.

Maybe with that layout, it's not an issue - like the inside rear wheel lifting on some FWD cars in hard cornering. I don't know much about suspension design.

I'd love to see this thing come to market, but the odds are SO poor, it's not worth hoping for.

I dunno, I looked pretty carefully but didn't see it? The roll certainly looks more controlled than Paul Wilbur's Fat-tera... when they ran that thing it was swaying like a ship in a storm. But maybe I'm missing it on my phone...

I sure hope it's not, because any wheel leaving the ground is bad on a three wheeler since it's already running the minimum number for stability!

I know on my reverse trike in high school that cornering past the limit results in the rear end trying to swap with the front. A bit frightening at 45 MPH, 1" off the ground and headed towards the bleachers. Lots of corners were cut to get the thing on the road on time and on budget (mostly donated parts/materials).

Yeah turning hard and making a wheel come off the ground in a 3 wheeler is very troubling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8

You know you are 'stirring the pot', right?

This pot begs to be stirred.
They were so sure the laws of physics didn't apply to them now they have to go back and add an anti sway bar after the fact from scratch. So they don't really know where they are going to put it, where to attach it, how stiff it needs to be, what to make it out of. I wonder if they are going to attempt to make it out of some exotic material and waste a bunch of time and money there.

With an anti sway bar they could get rid of the hub motors and switch back to a traditional geared motor with half shafts, should save $10,000

I don't disagree that whatever they were thinking (weight savings?) has evolved,

When you put that Reliant in a reverse trike thread, I spent half an hour searching, fruitlessly, for the video of a Messerschmitt going up on two wheels and driving down the track and out of sight. I know I've posted it at least twice but Google and DuckDuckGo were no help. (Can anyone find it? Can I put videos in an album?)

Viewing it on a bigger screen probably required. To my eyes, it looked like the right wheel lifted slightly as the left side suspension compressed. The touchdown was the noticeable part.

I just rewatched it at 0.25x speed and 1440p and I'm sure I can briefly see daylight under that right tire. About 1px worth. :D They shoulda digitally shaded that a bit.

Also just noticed the front wheel skirts are not on the car in that shot.

Just images.

And it would be significantly faster than my ancient 2011 leaf. The leaf at full battle rattel on a wet road appears to be at least a full second faster at every marker. That little thing should easily mop the floor and run circles around an obsolete relic like the original leaf.
It's really looking like direct drive hub motors don't offer anything over a regular motor and great box.
They definitely cost more, appear to be very heavy, make the vehicle significantly slower and will contribute to "unsafe at any speed" handeling.

I for one, appreciate oil pan's subtlety.

I really hope Aptera succeeds. To be honest, I love the idea of driving an EV, but there aren't any EV's out there that appeal to me. They're the same sedans and crossovers just made with electric motors, Leaf and Teslas included. The cyber truck is different, but isn't ever going to be in my price range.

What I hope for is more versions of the Aptera. 4 wheels, 4 doors, 5/6 seats or more. But with ultra aerodynamic body styling.

It's either that or I take a Model 3 and aeromod the thing to death and put solar panels on it.

Normal looking cars with 2 or 4 doors is what most people will buy.
I hope they are successful. But they are not going to be unless they offer a machine that is the same price or cheaper than a normal looking car and it can run circles around normal looking cars.
Cause right now it looks like they are basing success on "it looks different".

Edison2.

edison2motors.com/facts-figures

When I was a kid cars where cool. There were lots of cars and not necessarily much more powerful than the rest, but each was cool in its own right. The older air cooled VW's and the muscle cars were still driving in their natural habitat. Then there were the hot hatches, the import tuners (even if their exhausts sounded like farts), and cars that were quite different like the Toyota MR2 and Pontiac Fierro and the Mazda RX7. Even minivans were cool since you could also go for a mid-sized Chevy Astro or Ford Aerostar. Or you could get a mid-engine super-charged Toyota Previa.

Most of those vehicles weren't the fastest nor the most practical. But they were cool and fun to drive in their own right.

Today we live in the CUV invaded apocalypse. If you want a vehicle you get a grey CUV. If you want to be cool you get a grey CU-EV. If you really want to really stand out you get a blue CU-EV.

Today's vehicles compete on screen size and how few seconds to 60mph.

What's cool about Aptera is they're trying to make an ulta efficient EV. This will help solve a lot of problems.

• A lot of people rent and don't have a way of installing a 240V level 2 charging system on the apartment. But if the car is efficient enough they could maybe get by with just running a 120V 15A extension cord to their car out the apartment window.
• If the car is ultra efficient you won't need such expensive quick charging infrastructure, lower wattages would suffice. Or charge up much faster with such chargers.
• Cars could be priced lower with smaller batteries and still get you as far or father than they can now.

All of these things would be the benefits of ultra efficient EV's. Or we can just keep driving lame, boring sedans and CUV's forever and ever.

When I was a kid it was fenderless Model As and bullet-nosed Studebakers. I saw Ron Courtney's X-51 on the streets of McMinneville. Now it's in some museum.

It was fun watching Beetles blow the doors off Big Block Chebys.

Ya! We'd go down to the 1/4 mile and watch them race. I remember one Beetle in particular with "The heartbeat stops here!" painted on the side.

Not that I have anything against Chevy's. I loved Chevy's too. My sister's first car was a 2 door '73 Malibu she bought for $50 and bored out the block to put in bigger pistons and a huge Edelbrock carburetor and headers. The thing would peal rubber!