They have a new YT video of a road trip, bragging about getting 300 mpg. Thing is, they start out in Flagstaff AZ (6,900+ ft elevation) and ending in California's Imperial valley, which is at (and in some places, below) sea level. I commented that they need to now drive back up the hill to figure real mileage.
On a separate note, I wonder how many people making deposits noticed that it's wider than a Ford F150.
Wait, people actually return to their starting point?
Apparently not just wider than an F150... Wider than an F150 Raptor.
I am not worried that it is wider than an F150, I am concerned about what happens if it is hit by an F250. That thing looks like a death trap in light of the massive trucks and SUVs it must share the road with.
I've been following Aptera for years and the width is definitely something I've taken into account.
It's still somewhat impressive they are still around and seem to be making progress, inflated marketing or not. Maybe production vehicles to customers by the end of the year? Maybe? Not going to hold my breath, but it seems possible.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
It'll be the safest motorcycle on the road.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
I can't believe they are still around. My son's high school friend thought these were the best thing and that was over 10 years ago.
They folded and liquidated in 2011 and were relaunched by the original founders in 2019. I hope they make something but it always seems far fetched for a new car company to make it, much less with a product that might require helmets and/or a motorcycle endorsement.
Well. It could be worse. It could be a paper thing body covering a giant electric drone with tiny bicycle wheels... that you are calling a car...
....good luck with those crash tests sir!
In reply to kb58 :
Agreed. Going downhill is significant. Our 2016 VW Jetta can get over 60mpg's on the drive from Santa Fe, NM (elevation is about 7200ft) to Espanola, NM (about 5600ft or thereabouts).
Yes, it's calculated by the car, no that's not the "final word" on mileage calculations. But it shows a 20mpg increase over "flatland" mileage. And, I don't brag to the world that our Jetta gets over 60mpg's as something that is readily attainable in most situations.
What Aptera claims may be situationally true, but it may be cherry-picking data to the point of irrelevance.
If you're descending constantly, the injectors may actually be shut down on a manual trans car. You can see some amazing mileage figures. It's really funny to see the battery charge actually climb on an EV that's regenerating.
pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:I am not worried that it is wider than an F150, I am concerned about what happens if it is hit by an F250. That thing looks like a death trap in light of the massive trucks and SUVs it must share the road with.
The rivian suv has a similar curb weight as the f250. I'd be worried about any of the electric vehicles scything through that thing.
Was it achieved while using air-conditioning? Imerial Valley in July would add interest to the test with all that glass greenhouse/canopy.
I know that I keep dumping on them, but it's not really about the car - I actually Really like the overall shape of the passenger compartment*. It's about the best shape for carrying people and also getting great mileage. My problem is the Marketing: the cherry-picked data, the tired use of the "up to" X miles phrase for solar charging, and the one that really bugs me: trying to be cool and hip with a web page on Aptera lifestyle - OMG. Lifestyle.... Lifestyle?! How can anyone have a "lifestyle" with a car that doesn't exist? Yes I get it, it's the "fake it 'till you make it" thing, trying to get buyers to imagine themselves being uber cool... with emphasis on imagine.
On a related note, I do think the fact that it's a three-wheel design will severely limit sales. I understand the engineering reasons why it was chosen - but there's no getting around the public perception regarding the 3-wheel esthetics and the thoughts of "it'll tip over", warranted or not.
* Aptera leaves out the small fact that they lifted that shape from aerodynamic testing performed by VW (wrong, Morelli, corrected below) years before Aptera existed. (VW's profile shape is in the Milliken race car design book.)
kb58 said:...
* Aptera leaves out the small fact that they lifted that shape from aerodynamic testing performed by VW years before Aptera started. (VW's profile shape is in the Milliken race car design book.)
I guess I thought that 'everyone' knew the basic Aptera-esque shape was based on Morelli's stuff
Napkin math
The potential energy stored in an Aptera at approx 2000m of elevation is about the same as 0.15 gallons of gasoline.
Oapfu said:I guess I thought that 'everyone' knew the basic Aptera-esque shape was based on Morelli's stuff
Dang it, you're absolutely correct, sir. The figure is indeed in my Milliken book and is credited to Morelli - dunno how I thought that it was from VW.
In reply to kb58 :
(Identifier: I worked for Aptera alongside your brother and now work for the company you retired from).
Most of the potential customers / supporters fit into two categories: young-to-middle-aged engineers and near-retirement women. The marketing that each group responds to is different.
Aptera has credited the Morelli design as the original basis for the shape. Any patents for it have long since expired.
The engineers I worked with there were really good and the prototypes turned out very well especially considering the small budget.
The vehicle hasn't launched yet because Aptera needs not just a large amount of money to buy production tooling but to have it show up suddenly rather than slowly. One check showing up, roughly equal to the investment so far, would do it. Job 1 continues to be a year out because all the funding that's showing up is roughly equal to the cost of operating the little prototyping and marketing operation that's there.
It's a pretty cool idea, and I had a manager move to them when he retired.
That being said, in recent years, the high fuel economy cars that OEM's have made never sold in volume that they could make money on. Let alone they tended to be the cheapest cars OEMs could sell. So being cheap and good fuel economy never made them sales darlings. It's one area I give Tesla credit for- they knew that their best chance was to sell luxury cars for a car that cost a lot of money to make; instead of going for the EV version of a Prius, for instance.
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