@kiteboarder you say 'only' and I say orly, that's significant and against the ethos of the Aptera. hopefully the Aptera will become reality and we will see!
I think more appropriate would be a hot hatch/city runabout type vehicle with a smaller battery and footprint that's ideal for european city travel and sensibilities?
Once you get spoiled it really is hard to go bigger when you have crazy-narrow 120-year-old streets with huge pickup trucks parked on each side & others stopping well away from them to let passengers slowly gather their belongings 🙄 & get out the right hand side. My 500e squeezes past where Aptera would be stuck waiting.
My friend who leased one & then got a Tesla 3 said she "really misses the Fiat for zipping around town", which is what most of us do with our cars, most of the time.
@alexluttrell It would only reduce the 250-mile range to about 240:
They say the extra width reduced drag "over 10%". Since they're playing it UP, it's fair to assume it wasn't MUCH over 10% though. That would make the drag coefficient about 0.144 which adds less than 0.2kW at 48mph (9.62mi/kWh instead of 10.0)
@Ken Kobayashi Sure, but even at 15%, with just 25kWh it's still some 588% of the average daily drive at around 235 miles. Need more, get the bigger battery, or the illegal-width model if you're allowed.
@kiteboarder the issue with the width is partly stability but the bigger issue is the significant drag hit if you were to reduce the distance between wheels/wheelspats and the vehicle. I would be surprised if Aptera compromised on this.
I'm pretty sure I saw a vid where they discussed adding a swaybar to retain stability at a legal width for the EU, which I believe for 3-wheelers is 2.00m between outer edges of tire tread.
The three wheeled version currently in alpha will likely never be narrower than 88" or ~223cm due to the priority on maximizing efficiency/aerodynamics while still retaining a reasonable interior cabin size. IIRC Euro specs often require a passenger vehicle to be less than 225cm wide, and if that's true you will have to wait for (at the earliest) the 4 wheeled Aptera due in ~2023-2024.
@kiteboarder you say 'only' and I say orly, that's significant and against the ethos of the Aptera. hopefully the Aptera will become reality and we will see!
I think more appropriate would be a hot hatch/city runabout type vehicle with a smaller battery and footprint that's ideal for european city travel and sensibilities?
@alexluttrell It would only reduce the 250-mile range to about 240:
They say the extra width reduced drag "over 10%". Since they're playing it UP, it's fair to assume it wasn't MUCH over 10% though. That would make the drag coefficient about 0.144 which adds less than 0.2kW at 48mph (9.62mi/kWh instead of 10.0)
@kiteboarder the issue with the width is partly stability but the bigger issue is the significant drag hit if you were to reduce the distance between wheels/wheelspats and the vehicle. I would be surprised if Aptera compromised on this.
Aptera is using a different (smaller) hub motor from Elaphe
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1759546/000110465920119279/tm2034197d1_ex10-14.htm
Kiteboarder
Please add the video link - thank you
I'm pretty sure I saw a vid where they discussed adding a swaybar to retain stability at a legal width for the EU, which I believe for 3-wheelers is 2.00m between outer edges of tire tread.
The three wheeled version currently in alpha will likely never be narrower than 88" or ~223cm due to the priority on maximizing efficiency/aerodynamics while still retaining a reasonable interior cabin size. IIRC Euro specs often require a passenger vehicle to be less than 225cm wide, and if that's true you will have to wait for (at the earliest) the 4 wheeled Aptera due in ~2023-2024.