New Aptera

[Frank Lee]

Funding bwaaahahahaha!!!! That's what loans are for right?

Then there's that $10,000,000 from the X-Prize...

[user removed]

What!

A transmission!

regards
Mech

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

By that time, there will already be attractive (PH)EV's on the market, priced similarly to the Aptera.

Attractive? Well, eye of the beholder and all that, but I don't know of any attractive AND reasonably priced ones coming out. Nissan Leaf? Boring muffin-tin shaped small sedan. Volt? Boring larger sedan. Tesla? Drop the price to $30K, and you've got a sale :-)

Though I must admit, the Aptera's attraction dropped about 30% when I read that "two golf bag" statement.

[NeilBlanchard]

I did a measurement of an earlier version in DataCAD; and I can do it again with this version, if we have a straight-on shot of the front from about 50' away. I think the area before was ~19 sq ft, so the CdA was under 3 sq ft.

The "transmission" is a single speed reduction unit with a differential -- the same unit the Tesla uses.

Here's a good video of the new Aptera in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61MvUCvAy10

[gone-ot]

...except for the "Mohawk backlite/rooflite" (too much solar loading for AZ summer sun, IMHO) -- I like it!

[cfg83]

jamesqf -

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Attractive? Well, eye of the beholder and all that, but I don't know of any attractive AND reasonably priced ones coming out. Nissan Leaf? Boring muffin-tin shaped small sedan. Volt? Boring larger sedan. Tesla? Drop the price to $30K, and you've got a sale :-)

Though I must admit, the Aptera's attraction dropped about 30% when I read that "two golf bag" statement.

Just think of one golf bag as equal to one sleeping dog :



CarloSW2

[botsapper]

Much safer & lower CG. Will miss the original 1E concept's unique wider & higher stance, where you could appreciate more the sculpted body and sleeker suspension parts. Now has a 'conventional' open wheel closed coupe appearance from the front view. Add another reverse trike choice. New body seems taller & rounder. The additional (req'd) side mirrors could have been diminished w/ darker paint finish. Has the same turning radius of my neighbor's Ford Expedition on the cul-de-sac.
Good luck Aptera.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Just think of one golf bag as equal to one sleeping dog:

Sure, _I_ can think that. The problem is that the company is apparently now being run by the sort of people to whom golf bags are normal and familar adjuncts. Not my kind of people, IOW.

[gone-ot]

...OK, think: two hunting rifles and a fishing tackle box.

[SentraSE-R]

The Aptera, like the EV-1, Fisker, and Volt, survived on government grants for alternative energy vehicles, IMO. None of them will make it to market without a generous infusion of VC funding, or in the case of the Volt, a generous infusion of parent corporation money.

Contrast their milking grant money to the Nissan Leaf's actual marketing - swift and decisive, with no "maybes." We'll see the Leaf. I seriously doubt we'll ever see the Aptera marketed.