Automotive

Aptera returns, promising a 1,000-mile hyper-aerodynamic EV

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Aptera's Steve Farmbro and Chris Anthony
Aptera
Aptera's Steve Farmbro and Chris Anthony
Aptera
The doors will open upward. What more do you people want?
Aptera
Simple chassis includes three 50-kW hub motors, a floor-mounted battery pack and a lightweight, super-strong composite chassis
Aptera
Rear view – the Aptera is optimized for low-drag aeros
Aptera
The Aptera will seat two with luggage
Aptera
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After two previous efforts to get this incredibly aerodynamic, insanely efficient and wild-looking electric car off the ground, Aptera's founders are back in the saddle and preparing for a third attempt. The company is raising funds for a new model it hopes to launch in 2022 that it claims can squeeze 1,000 miles (1,600 km) out of its biggest battery option, a 100-kWh pack.

That's an amazing figure – this car is projected to use less than 100 Wh per mile, which equates to 337 MPGe, or 0.7 L/100 km. And the approach is the same as before: build a super-lightweight, strong composite body, endow it with excellent aerodynamics drawing on ideas from the aerospace world, and stick it on the road as a comfy two-seat three-wheeler.

Indeed, in an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Aptera co-founder Chris Anthony admitted that the team thought its early popularity might have inspired other automakers to pick up the efficiency ball and run with it – particularly given that range is still the biggest perceived bugaboo for EV buyers. "What astonishes me," Anthony said, “is that none of them have yet taken up the challenge: How efficient can a car be?"

The doors will open upward. What more do you people want?
Aptera

It's not all about 1,000-mile non-stop journeys, of course, which most people would never bother to attempt in a lifetime. It's about making the best possible use of energy. A lower-spec Aptera is planned with a 40-kWh battery that will presumably take it significantly further than 400 mi (644 km), since it'll be much lighter than the 100-kWh version. By means of comparison, a 40-kWh Nissan Leaf gets just 168 mi (270 km) on the WLTP test from the same amount of energy, showcasing just how much fat remains to be cut from mainstream electrics.

Perhaps it's not surprising, given that it's much cheaper to charge your car at home overnight on off-peak power prices than it is to buy gasoline; fuel efficiency probably isn't at the forefront of EV buyer's minds. But it certainly should be if you're genuinely going electric to try to reduce the size of the metaphorical footprint you're stamping into the Earth in your decades here.

The Aptera team knows what it's getting itself into as it makes another push toward production. The company was originally founded in 2006, and raised some US$24 million to build prototypes and move towards that production goal. After making 2,000 sales and registering some 60,000 expressions of interest in the Aptera 2E, the company had to return deposits, liquidate assets and close its doors in 2011, after failing to raise a further several hundred million it would've needed to set up mass production facilities.

The company's IP was then acquired by China's Zhejiang Jonway Group, which split out two separate entities attempting to bring the Aptera to market with gasoline and electric powertrains. Little came of it, which left open the opportunity for the original founders to scoop the IP back up and prepare to enter the fray once more.

Simple chassis includes three 50-kW hub motors, a floor-mounted battery pack and a lightweight, super-strong composite chassis
Aptera

Much has changed since 2011 – batteries are now cheaper and much more available, and the team is also hoping to take advantage of additive manufacturing technology to produce complex, lightweight components that traditional manufacturing simply could never build. The team expects to use three 50-kilowatt (67-hp) hub motors to power each wheel of the new Aptera, which will make it pretty quick when it wants to be, and the aerodynamics will be better than ever thanks to advances in computational modeling.

Of course, to get this thing into production, the company's going to have to climb that same old mountain of fundraising. Initially, the team's goal is $2.5 million, which it's working to raise from venture capitalists, but also throwing open to the public on the WeFunder crowd investment platform. That, if successful, will be enough to get three prototypes on the road in 2020, with a goal of selling more than 11,000 units a year by 2022 at target prices between $34-59,000 – depending, of course, on finding a lot more cash.

The Aptera is a beautiful and good-hearted machine. Its name refers to Apteryx, the genus of flightless birds that includes the Kiwi, which fits perfectly with a vehicle that looks so much like a wingless aeroplane. We sincerely hope Aptera does a better job than its namesake of getting off the ground this time.

Source: Aptera WeFunder via IEEE Spectrum

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13 comments
aki009
That "car" doesn't look like it has much in the way of protective material between the occupants and whatever might be smashing into the vehicle in an accident. That is definitely not something anyone would want to be getting into accidents with...
sidmehta
Fine but does it include air conditioning, screens, computers, running music, luggage space, a spare, tools like a jack, dual brake systems, crumple zones, airbags and everything else you need in a real car? Or did they just want to make an academic point in this unstable, unsafe and unrealistic toy?
guzmanchinky
I'm sure it's a tech marvel, but as mentioned before completely unsafe in a crash. I wonder how harsh the ride would be on a less than perfect road as well, being as light as it is.
McGannSaphir
I'd love to have one that really works....sad to say, it looks like "vaporware" to me. Oh yeah, I also bought an Eon electric scooter---same deal.
Username
aki009, if it ends up being produced and sold it will have past safety tests.
Kpar
What about heating, air conditioning, defrosters, etc? It cannot truly be an automobile without the essentials.
ljaques
Those don't look like they'll do well in safety tests, nor do they look roomy. I think the prices are far too steep for that offering, but it's a cute model, so we'll see if cute can bear the price.
seewind
with the cg above the axles and 200hp, high speed handling will get real dicey in a hurry. why 200 hp?
Tom Lee Mullins
I think that is both cool and green. It would be really cool - IMO - to drive that. I am hoping they actually make them now. They said they would before but it didn't happen. I hope it happens now. It is going on my list of possible future cars.
Grunchy
I had to think a few minutes before I remembered the name of those other guys: Elio.
(I liked the looks of the Aptera much better but you wanna know who’s better still? Looper’s XR3)