Spaceship-like car to hit U.S. roads

[gone-ot]

...and the "TITANIC" shouldn't have sunk, but it did.

[NeilBlanchard]

Or, lithium polymer cells, which are very thermally stable; no active cooling required.

[Joenavy85]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...and the "TITANIC" shouldn't have sunk, but it did.

irrelevant, badly designed, with ignorant people saying it wouldn't sink.

[Christ]

It should have had 11 hulls, damn it.

[ConnClark]

Originally Posted by jason1973tl

O.K. first point. You need to watch a few vids on the Aptera. The shell is designed to be so strong an elephant could stand on it.

In theory it could if the weight was evenly distributed. A chicken egg can support over 25 pounds under the same circumstances. That doesn't mean that gluing 160 eggs to my car will make it safe.

I'll believe their claims on safety when I see crash test results conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

So far all Aptera have produced as far as safety is claims, marketing, and a limited computer simulation.

Second, I believe the reverse trike design makes it more stable than older tadpole designs, and I believe this design is much more likely to spin out than even a regular car. Just watch a few videos on the T Rex.

The reverse trike makes it more stable in braking which is a good thing but not everything. Lateral stability will still suffer from the trike design. The only way to improve it is to move the center of mass up toward the two front wheels. Unfortunately the more you do this the less control and directional stability the back wheel provides. If you move the center of mass too far forward the car will flip over when applying the brakes.

Third and most important. The Lithium battery that needs coolant are the lithium ions referred to as lithium cobalt oxide. Those are the thermal runaway batteries you are talking about. Anybody looking to use lithiums should look at Lithium Iron Phosphate. It is a much cooler running, much more stable and longer cycle battery chemistry than the others you are talking about. All of the home converted electric cars I know of using lithiums are using LiFePo batteries. You can find a dozen or more websites selling them now. They are the large format rectangular, yellow, blue or white batteries you may have seen pictures of.

All lithium ion batteries types have issues with fire safety. Its the nature of the chemistry. Some variants have reduced the danger some but they can't eliminate it. The highest risk of fire from them is when recharging, but they still can go off seemingly for no reason when not in use.

The main problem is that small metal filaments form in the electrolyte. If you get some of them to short from the positive side of the battery to the negative side of the battery it discharges the battery and it over heats and explodes.

[ConnClark]

Originally Posted by Joenavy85

irrelevant, badly designed, with ignorant people saying it wouldn't sink.

actually it was well designed. It was just pushed beyond its design limits.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by ConnClark

Having its nose higher than most bumpers is going to deflect the thing up into the air in an accident.

Take a good look at a picture of the Aptera, and compare it with the vehicles you see driving around out there. The nose is emphatically NOT higher than most bumpers. Indeed, it's enough lower than most SUV/pickup type vehicles that the actual danger would be going under the other vehicle.

But if this is an insurmountable problem for the Aptera, why is it not one for e.g. the Corvette, to name just one of many low-nosed cars?

[ConnClark]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Take a good look at a picture of the Aptera, and compare it with the vehicles you see driving around out there. The nose is emphatically NOT higher than most bumpers. Indeed, it's enough lower than most SUV/pickup type vehicles that the actual danger would be going under the other vehicle.

But if this is an insurmountable problem for the Aptera, why is it not one for e.g. the Corvette, to name just one of many low-nosed cars?

Well lets look at its nose height compared to a prius. ( See attached pic )

The Aptera's nose is right about where the hood begins and thus above the bumper. So from this we can conclude that the Aptera is not a low nose car. In an impact with a prius the Aptera will be launched upward.

[jason1973tl]

Originally Posted by ConnClark

Well lets look at its nose height compared to a prius. ( See attached pic )

The Aptera's nose is right about where the hood begins and thus above the bumper. So from this we can conclude that the Aptera is not a low nose car. In an impact with a prius the Aptera will be launched upward.

Which in my opinion offers you a better chance of survival than letting the Prius flatten you.

[XJguy]

Originally Posted by jason1973tl

O.K. first point. You need to watch a few vids on the Aptera. The shell is designed to be so strong an elephant could stand on it.

The problem with this reasoning is that the largest of elephants weighs in at 8.25 tons. A collision into a tree as slow was 25mph an average car experiences 48.4 tons of force.