At first glance, the Aptera looks like the typical sci-fi concept car that gets paraded at car expos by the likes of Mercedes and BMW. But the design is the result of relentless optimization to make the most efficient EV possible. It came down to improving three elements: shape, weight, and charging features.
The shape is inspired by how sharks and other fish reshape their bodies when swimming close to the ocean floor to reduce their drag and conserve energy. After testing it in NASA’s wind tunnels, the Aptera turned out to have less drag than one side-view mirror on a pickup truck (according to the company). The EV also weighs 65% less because of the switch to carbon fibre materials and removing one of the wheels. And finally, the exterior is covered in solar panels that can recharge up to 40mi/60km per day.
I’m a big fan of the “less is more” approach here. It’s definitely not the perfect vehicle for every use case, but I can see this becoming an ideal commuter vehicle. Hopefully they can go from prototypes to large-scale production successfully and not run out of money. Apparently, they plan on making their first deliveries in the next few months.

>If you watch Formula 1, you know how slight variations in the car's shape can help it "cut" through the air for maximum performance

Nope, F1 cars are upside down planes. They have wings to push the car into the road creating downforce to corner faster.

Don't drive this in windy conditions. You'd get blown of the road at the first sidewind.

Thank you for this, Aptera marketing assistant manager.

The most common EV barrier is price. If this thing is over $25k none of that optimization matters in the market.

The following submission statement was provided by /u/cartoonzi:

At first glance, the Aptera looks like the typical sci-fi concept car that gets paraded at car expos by the likes of Mercedes and BMW. But the design is the result of relentless optimization to make the most efficient EV possible. It came down to improving three elements: shape, weight, and charging features.
The shape is inspired by how sharks and other fish reshape their bodies when swimming close to the ocean floor to reduce their drag and conserve energy. After testing it in NASA’s wind tunnels, the Aptera turned out to have less drag than one side-view mirror on a pickup truck (according to the company). The EV also weighs 65% less because of the switch to carbon fibre materials and removing one of the wheels. And finally, the exterior is covered in solar panels that can recharge up to 40mi/60km per day.
I’m a big fan of the “less is more” approach here. It’s definitely not the perfect vehicle for every use case, but I can see this becoming an ideal commuter vehicle. Hopefully they can go from prototypes to large-scale production successfully and not run out of money. Apparently, they plan on making their first deliveries in the next few months.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/z8qhas/the_solarpowered_apteras_unique_design_addresses/iycq267/

$25900 - $50,700. $25900 in my country UK would be relatively cheap for a new EV. That's around £21500 and the cheapest new EV here is by MG at £26,000.

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Well depending on how technical you want to get… DRS is a change in the car’s shape which certainly helps it “cut” through the air faster. Also the current generation largely relies on ground effect to produce downforce rather than wings, but that’s neither here nor there. Ultimately, the cars are aerodynamically optimized insofar as any drag they do produce is going towards the production of downforce.

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I would like to buy one, but I can't. I need a car that can handle a few inches of snow. I often go to work before the plows have cleared the roads.

Looks very much like Elio motors attempt. They wanted to do a 3 wheel gasoline powered car, took tons of deposits, but never got farther than a prototype. They are now trying to do a 3 wheeled EV. I'm a skeptic until the company starts shipping actual vehicles.

Somebody asked about price. Elio is targeting $14,900 but if I remember the target for the gasoline powered version was about $7,000 and they just never got to production.

Yep, F1 cars are just a bad example.

Aero efficiency, as I'm sure you're aware, is a different thing altogether.

Something like the McLaren Speedtail is a better analogy

https://cars.mclaren.com/gb-en/ultimate-series/mclaren-speedtail

Cool design. Looks like a two seater with little or no luggage space. Range with electric cars is always an issue. Anyone know the range when fully charged? Small batteries seem to imply limited range.

I don’t think it’s the most important one, but it does end up being the most common one

That’s 150W of solar at absolute best. Just ride a fucking bike or take a train, you cannot design your way out of physics.

Also, not only is it over $25k, but the thing is tiny and creaks like crazy. The interior of the actual models screams "home garage built."

I do want a Aptera still, but its definitely not for mainstream.

Oh 100%, just splitting hairs. I agree with you, and think generally any comparison of an economy vehicle against a high performance vehicle will fail. Cars traveling at high speed need to produce some downforce, to remain stable, even where minimizing drag is their aim. I think a VW XL1 would be an even better comparison to that end, but that’s way less sexy of a comparison than F1, or the speedtail.

Assuming you’ll need about 2KW of power for this size (e bike kits usually go up to 1kW) and those solar panels can provide about 150W (curved panels are dogshit) you’ll probably get 100miles out of this thing tops. You could probably expect to gain a mile of range per hour with full sun. This thing is another solarpunk pipe dream.

What’s the crash safety rating on this ? Can it reach highway speeds ?

it comes in all wheel drive

For people that drive less than 40 miles/day the solar powered recharging solution is brilliant.

>The motors and batteries are built into the wheels, instead of having one giant battery pack sitting under the floor of the EV. This helps spread the weight around the car to ensure stability.

How to tell me you know nothing about vehicle dynamics without saying you know nothing about vehicle dynamics.

Putting batteries in wheels does nothing for stability, except thrashing suspension response due to unsprung weight.

Aptera has been around with iterations of this design for like 10 years, maybe even more. It’s vaporware until they actually deliver, which I doubt they will.

It is a two seater. They offer different battery sizes. They claim up to 1000 miles on a charge with the largest battery.

This will be a fantastic replacement for golf carts

Can't imagine having them rotate and be exposed to more vibrations is great for the battery packs either.

Its a trike. No crash rating. Yes.

They need money to build a manufacturing plant. If someone believes in them enough, they can start deliveries.

Pretty sure it’s the article author that slipped up. Looks like they just use a battery pack from a quick google: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/aptera-finishes-production-intent-battery-pack-design-and-tells-us-more-about-it-188771.html.

This is incorrect the batteries are in the main part of the Aptera, only the motors are in the wheels.

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The joker who wrote the article clearly doesn't know what they are talking about. First, they [Aptera] don't have the battery pack in the wheels, it is in the center of the vehicle under the cargo area and second, exactly what you said about vehicle dynamics relating to unsprung weight and its effects on stability.

Yeah I put a deposit down and 18 months later had a fight to get it back. What they were trying to do made sense. The big challenge I saw was the front back seating. The name for that escapes me. Really just felt like they were prying money from people. I was able to sit in one at a mall years ago and it was surprisingly…ok

Because they are designing EV cars for white collar people.

It's a bummer that they're going with the tesla charging port rather than the port that every other EV manufacturer is using.

prob very unsafe.

LMAO they don't have to build a manufacturing plant. I have one of these cars ordered (as a second car) and they just paired with a manufacturer in Europe. That's how normal business is done.

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/11/23/aptera-partners-with-italian-composites-manufacturer-to-accelerate-production/

Bolt EUV is $27.5k. Btw the average new vehicle price today is $50k.

That partnership only builds the body. They still have to put the car together and they need a manufacturing plant for that. Chris Anthony and Sandi Munro had a discussion on this a week ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TNHPP_czHE

Right but you don't BUILD a whole manufacturing plant. You pair with one. That's my point. You made it sound like they have to start from the ground up with construction and that's inaccurate.

Not paying for electricity to charge it is a pretty good deal

No. They are not pairing with one. They have to put the car together, manufacture them. Widget 1 connected to widget 2 is manufacturing a product. Partnering with someone to make widget 1 and building widget 2 in house makes no difference to you having to manufacture the final product.

Yea. Motorcycles take off even without wind/s

.... this has absolutely nothing to do with building factories man

I am simply saying they do not have to necessarily build an entire factory from the ground up

Edit: I suddenly realize I think this is a language issue, is English your second language? I think we are using "build" differently

Lowest range model is $25k for 250 miles of range based on their website

Lowest range model is 250 mi

Yep I looked at their website and it seems like only the motors are in the wheels and it just has a regular battery pack. Seems like a mistake by the author.

You can go to the reservation site and the base model is $25,900. With the add on of all the solar panels (only the hood panels are included in base price) you can have a car that goes 250 miles on a single charge with the addition of up to 40 miles from the solar panels (depending on the day, location, and time if year) for $26,800.

This video is very informative if you need un-muddied info. It’s straight from the owner of the company and it’s a solid 30 minute showing, driving, and explaining of what their goal is and how they wanted the vehicle to be for the market. It’s a super great video, I’m still getting an Ariya but if I wasn’t married I would be willing to (hopefully) get this since you can get any part you need from a QR code if something breaks

https://youtu.be/I-KdsjVQhu0

I’m not sure that price is a real barrier, or there would be unsold EVs on car lots. I think that when supply catches up to demand, car companies will have to be competitive again at the low end. Some foreign EVs are already there but they’re hard to import. If they’re clever, car companies will use their current EV profit margins to make their future cars cheaper to build so that they can compete at the $20k level.

Batteries are plummeting in price are a falling% of the product. This will get below 25k.

I still think we should focus more on getting away from the car while moving towards EVs. EVs aren't as good at longer commutes and such but decreasing vehicle miles driven is key.

It's also automated electric busses are the real killer thing here. A lot of the problems with automated vehicles are because they aren't mapped or they have things in their path. This would make it a lot simpler.

Cities are wildly more efficient and people are willing to pay the premium, we should just build more and not subsidize the suburbs as much.

This car is the star citizen of the auto industry. The prototype for this that started in ca years ago still hasn’t made it to market?

Your average pricing is way off. Cars average is double what you’re stating. $25k is the bottom end of the market these days and most people want and will spend more than that.

But cars need to do more than transport 2 people from point A to point B, and there are reasons why they're shaped the way they are:

1. Families. They need to carry more than 2 passengers

2. Cargo. The modern car is a workhorse, used for transporting bulky items, and large quantities of things like groceries and gardening supplies.

3. Safety. They need to protect the passengers from injury during collisions.

4. Durability. After a couple of bumper taps, it should only require minor repairs.

Researchers frequently make experimental cars that get tremendous efficiency from only being solar powered, and this example appears to be just a little more usable than those.

What really should be happening is improvements in urban design, not to mention changing our car-based lifestyle, to move away from reliance on cars.

yeah I love how this is a paid ad masquerading as a blog post.

You don't drive a motorbike in stormy weather...

Not really - the Tesla charging port is far superior. remember, Tesla's designs beat the competition in EVs every. single. time.

put solar panels on your homes roof to run your EV on solar. Much more practical solution.

Cool, I'll drive that when everyone around me decided to also drive much smaller cars with legal bumper heights. Until then I'm not going to risk Chad killing me with his rented full SUV or Tucker with his modded truck that puts his "bumper" at the level of my windshield.

There are safer EVs out there, it's time to upgrade the grid and infrastructure to accommodate these vehicles. Vote, and start writing to your officials that you want green infrastructure.

What does the single back wheel do to stability? Seems like it would have to be less stable

Oh my b. I forgot its only windy when it's storming.

>Aptera hasn’t yet delivered a vehicle to any of the 37,000 customers that made reservations. They plan to make the first deliveries by the end of 2022.

With how bad the market is right now I expect those 37k reservations to get cut really quickly. It cost billions of dollars in investment to get cars out of the door. Rivian lost $1.72b last quarter, Lucid lost half a billion dollars.

Does Aptera even has the cash flow to last through 2023?

2026 electric autonomous ride hail will be more affordable than that ownership

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There will certainly be a limit to the solar wattage. But if it's also energy-efficient to drive, you could stretch "how far" that electricity would go. Nothing is a perfect solution, but I think it's an interesting option, at least.

I picked them up from actual statistics about new vehicle transactions. Where did you get your facts from? Your own ass?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.autoblog.com/amp/article/new-car-average-transaction-price-record-high/

And the used market is already a thing. I saw a used Volt in my home town for under 9K.

I mean an old Nissan leaf was $6k before the crazy spike

I got an almost brand new one in 2015 for 10K. Been paid off for a while, cheapest miles ever so far.

The vast majority of EVs use the Tesla charger.

For the month of October, a month in which luxury sales accounted for almost 20% of all sales. Seems a bit disproportionate.

Also , it seems like currently there is an over representation of trucks being purchased which add expense (business right off?)

The Honda Civic price 2022 in October 2022 ranges from 23-29k

Toyota Corolla starts at less than 23k

Of the most popular vehicles sold 2022 , the vast majority are truck / suv / Tesla.

But yes the fact remains the average new car price for October 2022 is close to 50k

That looks like it’s be fun to drive in wind and rain where I live.

I am not quoting average price, for EV to take over it needs to be cheaper than ICE, majority of people aren’t incentivized to pay more to save the environment.

EVs are a lot cheaper to operate. Electricity is cheaper than gas.

>For the month of October, a month in which luxury sales accounted for almost 20% of all sales. Seems a bit disproportionate.

It's been over $48k for the entire year, it was over $47k last year.

>Also , it seems like currently there is an over representation of trucks being purchased which add expense (business right off?)

Nah, Americans just love big unnecessary trucks whilst complaining about gas prices. 🤷‍♂️

Anyways my point is $27.5k for a small electric SUV isn't high, especially since there are federal and state rebates.

It is literally and figuratively the North American Charging Standard.

You can't design your way around physics, but you can make an aerodynamic car.

i just need/want this on a jeep/truck-styled frame so that it can be driven off-road or at least on unpaved roads

the front wheel housings seem like they are going to be the first things to fail in real-world driving , regardless of the aerodynamic benefits ; should put the blinkers into the main body structure

Not every car needs to carry more than 2 people. This car has 25 cubic feet of cargo space, not issue on that front. No safety issues either.

This is a production car, not an experimental car.

yeah, I remember trying to reserve one back in 2005ish. It's at least 20 years of development hell

That’s going to change as climate shocks get worse. People will start to group organize as they become alarmed about their kids

2 seater with lots of luggage space and 1000 miles range with the largest battery option + 40 miler per day of solar in full sun with the full solar package though that blocks the rear window.

Why? In North America, there are significantly more Tesla plugs around. There are significant advantages to how quickly it can charge, how easy it is to use, packaging, and price.

The legacy manufacturers literally came together to try to tank Tesla while also trying to tank EVs.

They're claiming 10 miles per kWh. So 40 miles is 4kWh.

The version you don't have to charge is COVERED in solar panels. 700W on sunny days is the claim.

Their claims are perfectly reasonable for all 15 summer days you can park directly in the sun from 9-5 with no interruptions.

It is hard to get solar to make sense on a car, only so much energy hits a given area. If you ignore aerodynamics I don't think you can make it practical.

The claim can be whatever it wants. The fact of the matter is that your available capacity on anything other than motorized tracking panels is going to be about 30% of ideal while sill having a reasonable hope of being aerodynamic. The realities of the application at hand are at odds with the claim. Also worth noting is that the kind of days that would provide this level of solar performance (assuming everything else works by magic) would also necessitate climate control for the benefit of battery pack and driver. The solar car concept has fundamental issues; I worked on a solar car competition in college and it was only possible with future solar panels, future energy storage, future efficiency gains, and zero utility for the user. Like much of what gets posted on this sub, it’s CGI wishful thinking

How does it do in crash tests?

This seems like a nice replacement for an electric motorcycle, but it's not comparable to a real car.

Cool. But here where people don't just lend money everytime they want a car, cost to enter is a prohibiting factor.

Cost to enter is obviously an issue, but EVs don't have to be cheaper than ICE vehicles to be more appealing. Different people place different values on future money vs current money, but only the extremely stupid/incompetent place zero value on future money. If a car saves you $20k over it's lifetime you might only be willing to pay an extra $10k for that. If you are particularly short sighted you might only pay $5k. People who don't qualify for a ~$30k car loan are probably shouldn't buy a new car anyway.

I’ve been following the Aptera for a decade and the things that are keeping it from being a reality are:

1. The lack of a physical side mirror. California requires analog mirrors for any vehicle to be treated as a car. The onboard cameras and screens are great, but in the event of a power failure or device malfunction, there are no backup mirrors.

2. It floats very easily. In road tests, a standing puddle with two or more inches of water can divert an Aptera’s trajectory at speeds as low as 20mph (30kph). Running water presents an even higher risk.

3. Crosswind stability. An uplifting wind, like what you get when driving along a cliff or hillside, can significantly alter the direction of the Aptera.

If these three issues could be resolved in an economic manner, we may see them everywhere (especially in my garage).

I have literally talked directly with the founder of Aptera and told him exactly the same thing. Just the weight of the panels mean they could have increased the range by more than the 40 miles they could get in their ideal scenario.

Car Citizen

They don’t need to be cheaper, just the same price or even slightly more given the running costs and maintenance are far far lower (no filter changes, no oil changes, no timing or fan belts, etc etc). People will spend more upfront because over the life of the car they spend far less. That why prius became so popular - they were $10k more than the same ICE car but you saved $20k in gas over the 5-10 years you owned it.

But does it have a feature for automatically running over children?

most SUVs and/or utility-type trucks with scaffolding in the back could easily accommodate a complete roof covering of solar panels

Really? The "will, it's a lake in the desert, what did you expect" people are going to respond to climate change before its far beyond too late to matter?

Yeah they need to delete anything expensive but keep the aerodynamic design, and get it down to the level of a Hyundai Accent or Kia Rio. Their market niche is definitely "second car".

Average is sometimes skewed by high outliers when it comes to prices, do we have a statistic on the median price instead?

I literally don’t understand how the OP got so many upvotes for suggesting manufacturers use non standard ports.

It’s like arguing to make life difficult. It’s a fucking plug, I don’t want a different plug for every EV, that’s just dumb.

The average non-luxury new vehicle transaction price is $44,288. This excludes all luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes etc.

New cars are pretty expensive these days. A Toyota Sienna is a $50k car once you put on a few options.

And they seldom keep any in stock that don't have a bunch of options.

Those are still pre-production estimates. Inflation alone could make those numbers impossible.

>This will get below 25k

The EV also weighs 65% less because of the switch to carbon fibre materials

Sure about that?

The Ford F150 Lightning and Rivian R1T each can go about 2 miles per kwh. The Aptera can go 5 times as far on the same energy. You could fit maybe 50% more solar panels on a large truck (the Lightning is 30% longer, the R1T is 22.6% longer) so with the extra panels it could maybe go 12 miles per day in full sun. That could still be useful.

>If you’re into cars, the Aptera has a drag coefficient of 0.13. As a reference: Ford F-150 (0.463), Tesla Model 3 (0.23), Toyota Corolla (0.29)

I know modern cars have pretty good aerodynamics, but how much is a "good looking" car costing us for efficiency, especially on the highway?

Everything is political, even plugs.

Aptera has a drag coefficient of 0.13 and can go twice as far as a Model 3 on the same amount of energy. Aerodynamics are especially important on the highway.

This thing definitely has some exciting ideas. The 0-60 on the fast one is 3.5 seconds too. It’s really a space ship and they do have performance videos to prove on that front. If they can hit production and price points I might have to trade in my sports car, since the solar angle really opens up charging options.

Those prices definitely we t up... To be fair, I am from Europe where things might be slightly cheaper, but nonetheless. Interesting to know, ty