I have 110000km (68000 miles) on my Ioniq EV and I had to change one hub bearing. I had a look at the pads and rotor and it was fine.
I am using a lot regenerative breaking and the cruise control, but from time to time I am doing a hard break to remove the rust. This way, my breaks are like new.
Of course, after the winter, I wash the wheel well and under the car to remove the salt.
It seems that cleaning under the car and around the wheel assemblies, after winter, much easier in the Aptera as I will change the wheels (winter to summer) and remove the wheel skirt.
An EV should use stainless steel brake rotors and pads if they do that the brakes will last forever. ICEVs can get away without stainless steel because the heat of braking drys the brakes. Because friction braking is used so little in an EV the brakes are subject to rust, but it's an easily fixable problem if you use the right components.
One factor to consider with the Elaphe motors on the aptera is that the brake rotors are located inside hub motor unit. They will be mostly, or maybe completely, isolated from road salt and other sources of corrosion.
Our first Prius (2004) got ~200,000 miles from the pads and rotors. The rotors could have gone longer probably but while it was in the shop getting the pads done it seemed to make sense to replace the rotors too. The second set were fine at to the point we replaced the car at 303,000 miles. Our Prius Prime is at 56,000 miles and things still look good. For my other ICE cars I have usually gotten ~60K miles before needing to replace the brake pads. For reference I live in central NJ but it is somewhat hilly ( by NJ standards). Almost every trip I take starts with a descent of about 600 ft and ends with an ascent of 600 feet. This kills the fuel economy on our SUV but the Prius does pretty well with regen and I usually end up about 6 miles from our house still with 100% of battery capacity. ( I wish there was a way to tell the Prius Prime to only charge to say 95% as I think we would get more regen Given all this I would expect the Aptera to do equally as well.
Well, I just replaced the rear brakes on my Volt for the second time (total mileage ~120K). These were "Coated" rotors. One of the contributing factors for this early demise I believe was the rusting in place of the pads into the guides. The pads would not move from the moderate pressure exerted on them. One side wore before the other...metal to metal. When I replaced them the electric miles jumped up! I am now seeing close to design electric only miles per charge.
I also have a 2005 Prius with lots of miles and no issue...not much regen and rear drums...the Volt has also given decent service from the front brakes.
I have a BMW i3 and live 200 steps from the Pacific Ocean. I have not seen any corosion on any of the rotors. You may know that the brake regen is fairly strong on these cars. Some i3 forum member got 175,000 miles on his rotors. Even with strong regenerative braking, the car does need mechanical braking once in a while.
My 2013 had great looking front rotors until I looked at the inboard side! The rear get very little use and die a swift death. Any regenerative braking is bad and very aggressive regeneration (Aptera's primary goal is efficiency) and salted roads of the northeast and it's a disaster. My 1985 BMW K100 motorcycle has stainless steel rotors...not a peep of trouble or corrosion. My friend has a Bolt and he's given up on rotors...yearly replacement with throw away rotors. We can do better!
Same problem on my 2014 Chevy Volt. Only replaced rear rotors once here in NJ after ~77K miles. Now I try to member to occasionally put the car in neutral while going down a hill so to use the real brakes to rub the rust off, especially after driving in wet weather.
In what salty place does your friend with a Bolt live?
@Harry Parker Duanesburg, NY, in the hills. Good idea-the neutral thing...it's not something all drivers can remember or get used to doing...not a cure-all...and I only occasionally drive that car, not primary driver.
I got over 70k miles on my 2014 and the rotor look like new. There's a hard coating (ferric nitride) that fights corrosion issues. Blended braking probably helps too. So there are methods to mitigate corrosion issues.
I am on my 3rd set of rear rotors on my Sentra. Rather unique in that I drive to the airport, set the parking brake, and come back 1-2 weeks later. They call it Lot Rot. IF we need disk brakes (I hope we don’t), then please use Stainless Steel rotors. If we can do it all with regen then we avoid the constant rotor drag while driving, making it roll even easier.
I have 110000km (68000 miles) on my Ioniq EV and I had to change one hub bearing. I had a look at the pads and rotor and it was fine.
I am using a lot regenerative breaking and the cruise control, but from time to time I am doing a hard break to remove the rust. This way, my breaks are like new.
Of course, after the winter, I wash the wheel well and under the car to remove the salt.
It seems that cleaning under the car and around the wheel assemblies, after winter, much easier in the Aptera as I will change the wheels (winter to summer) and remove the wheel skirt.
An EV should use stainless steel brake rotors and pads if they do that the brakes will last forever. ICEVs can get away without stainless steel because the heat of braking drys the brakes. Because friction braking is used so little in an EV the brakes are subject to rust, but it's an easily fixable problem if you use the right components.
Our first Prius (2004) got ~200,000 miles from the pads and rotors. The rotors could have gone longer probably but while it was in the shop getting the pads done it seemed to make sense to replace the rotors too. The second set were fine at to the point we replaced the car at 303,000 miles. Our Prius Prime is at 56,000 miles and things still look good. For my other ICE cars I have usually gotten ~60K miles before needing to replace the brake pads. For reference I live in central NJ but it is somewhat hilly ( by NJ standards). Almost every trip I take starts with a descent of about 600 ft and ends with an ascent of 600 feet. This kills the fuel economy on our SUV but the Prius does pretty well with regen and I usually end up about 6 miles from our house still with 100% of battery capacity. ( I wish there was a way to tell the Prius Prime to only charge to say 95% as I think we would get more regen Given all this I would expect the Aptera to do equally as well.
My 2014 Camry Hybrid uses very strong regen braking, and I have not seen any problems with the brakes (yet). Almost 90k miles now.
I have a BMW i3 and live 200 steps from the Pacific Ocean. I have not seen any corosion on any of the rotors. You may know that the brake regen is fairly strong on these cars. Some i3 forum member got 175,000 miles on his rotors. Even with strong regenerative braking, the car does need mechanical braking once in a while.
My 2013 had great looking front rotors until I looked at the inboard side! The rear get very little use and die a swift death. Any regenerative braking is bad and very aggressive regeneration (Aptera's primary goal is efficiency) and salted roads of the northeast and it's a disaster. My 1985 BMW K100 motorcycle has stainless steel rotors...not a peep of trouble or corrosion. My friend has a Bolt and he's given up on rotors...yearly replacement with throw away rotors. We can do better!