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Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

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Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#13

Are people still falling for Aptera's nonsense?

I have been watching this product for at least 10 years.

Think I will wait till the first 1,000 roll off the lines before I get interested in plunking down money.

I want them to succeed, but too many outfits like this one went broke early.

Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#14
post #12

I suppose the surface area + efficiency isn't there yet, but it would be sick to take my e-bike places and then expand a canopy to charge and then go on again.

It’s possible! There’s a yearly bike race from Europe to China called The Sun Trip, where people mod their bikes with solar and batteries and ride 12k km to China.

You might like this documentary that covered the first Sun Trip that happened in 2018: https://youtu.be/P1LB0jPh7QQ

Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#15
There’s a Chinese EV called the Solarky that has 600w of panels on it (300w with another 300w that slides out when stationary), which can collect about 50km of range a day, and sells right now for around $10k around Asia.

More info here: https://youtu.be/Hk6aTKV-des

Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#16

It seems kind of amazing. I think I'd like to own something like that, but I'll wait until there are some reviews and the bugs get shaken out more. Also don't know if foggy San Francisco has enopugh sunlight to make it viable. What happens when you run out of charge?

It also charges like any other EV, leve1 1 or 2 at home, and they say they intended to support faster DC charging in their FAQ[1]. I would be fairly skeptical of the 46mi / 74km a day from the built-in solar, that sounds optimistic given the small surface area. For me the bigger problem is that it's classified as a motorcycle, which may mean wearing a helmet, and needing to have a class M license. Insurance may also…

Yeah, I wish we could outlaw the monster trucks so that making these light weight vehicles would be more practical and safer.

A lot of the safety standards and regulations we have is because everyone is buying and driving 2T pickup trucks with 6ft hoods casually.

Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#18
Is that legit? That looks like vaporware scam to be honest

Edit: the fact the official aptera website has a banner at the top with their stock ticker is very suspicious, I assume it was a spac that didn’t go well?

Edit 2: actually, not a spac, direct listing as a public benefit corporation. They seem to have a very messy and complicated history with a lot of over promises and no delivery

Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon

#19
post #18

Is that legit? That looks like vaporware scam to be honest Edit: the fact the official aptera website has a banner at the top with their stock ticker is very suspicious, I assume it was a spac that didn’t go well? Edit 2: actually, not a spac, direct listing as a public benefit corporation. They seem to have a very messy and complicated history with a lot of over promises and no delivery

I don't think it is workable product. But 40 units sounds like something they could actually produce. Not that those will likely be more than curiosities and will likely have substantial number of teething issues.
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