Maybe for local transport. Looks perfect for golf courses, industrial sites, parks, malls with a need for a car to move around in a confined space. The kind of thing where you need to manage a site.
Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
51–57 of 57 posts
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The first corporation went bankrupt in 2011. The VCs forced the founders out, tried to move production to china, then iirc banked on a sketchy deal where best buy was trying to get into the ev sales market out of tesla fomo (but a best buy is not where you find an aptera adopter)
I see that I missed years of drama!
the best buy insight is a bit insider, i used to be coworker with the fellow who was on the design team that led the best buy market research stint
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#53There’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
Impressive for $8000. But its low top speed (80km/h) only makes it suitable for urban transportation. Also, I doubt this thing will be able to pass the NCAP (EU) or IIHS (USA) safety certification so they wouldn't be able to sell it in those regions even if there was demand for it.
> I doubt this thing will be able to pass the NCAP (EU) or IIHS (USA)
Wouldn’t count on that. The same used to be said of chinese EVs and they have topped safety rankings for years now.
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#54Add some protected bike lanes - many e-bikes get 100miles, 4 200w panels ($1000) could fully charge daily.
For me this is the dream ebike infrastructure that allows the large variance in speed you get with bikes. So allowing for ebikes that can go 30mph and 15mph, those are the speeds you want in an urban environment. The problem is making it secure and also feel secure.
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The first corporation went bankrupt in 2011. The VCs forced the founders out, tried to move production to china, then iirc banked on a sketchy deal where best buy was trying to get into the ev sales market out of tesla fomo (but a best buy is not where you find an aptera adopter)
I can see that. The founders shouldn't have gone to VCs then. Start low/limited runs and get cars on the road. If those work out, then try to get funding from sources that aren't going to screw you.
That seems to be what they're doing this time around.
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#56Maybe for local transport. Looks perfect for golf courses, industrial sites, parks, malls with a need for a car to move around in a confined space. The kind of thing where you need to manage a site.
For stuff like that you can just use a golf cart. The point of Aptera is extreme efficiency at highway speeds, which is why it has three wheels and looks like an airplane. For their smallest battery they claim a 400 mile range, and it goes way up from there.
It's not actually that small though; the front wheels give it a width of 88 inches.
Re: Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Safety regulations in the EU are pretty strict but pickup trucks are rare.