Why is the Aptera RPM-limited to 110mph?

@Biff Aptera have considered putting the bigger L1500 on the back wheel for AWD which makes sense because those who want the most efficient vehicle should pick the FWD anyways. I only care about having a more powerful motor at the back for improved 0-60.

I think what's likely to happen is similar to other automakers and they release a more expensive balls to the wall version a year or more after the initial production run.

@Silencz Some folks seem to forget that the current AWD 0-60 time is already quicker than 90+% of the cars out there - it's as quick as the regular Model S Tesla. There's really no reason for Apetra to work on something even quicker. Their focus will likely be on the 4 wheel model.

@#20116 Making a quicker product is almost pure profit, very little needs to be done to develop a faster version of a fast car, and it can pretty easily be done at the same time as doing the harder task of developing an all new 4 wheel car. But yeah if it ends up being 3.5s 110mph that is insane, just that many people would go for a 2.5s 185mph version for $10k more, so why not take the extra profit especially since they'll probably have a heat pump and some extras to throw in at that time.

When you have a car that goes 0-60 in 3.5 seconds or better, you are attracting speed demons who are salivating at the mouth because of the low price. The Aptera founders are proud of the speed and were planning to do a video drag racing another quick EV. Topping out at 110mph will make some speed demons sick and turn them away from the car because it will hurt the 1/4 mile and racing viability (unless you tune it to remove that restriction), so I understand the concern. But yeah it's not a concern for most.

Who cares? Germans do, for instance, which is precisely my point. In the US, 110mph is more than enough. In Germany, though, for instance, 110mph is a speed most cars can reach, and often leaves a bit to be desired. I mean, I did about 120mph in driver's ed. I don't care much for crazy acceleration, as long as it isn't super poor, but top speed is a lot more important. And efficiency should lead to higher speeds being possible (unless the problem is the motor itself being limited to 1500RPM as some have suggested).

@kiteboarder It's going to be interesting to see how aggressively the Aptera fights against drifting with and without traction control, etc turned on.

People don't realize the faster your car accelerates the safer it is. You can go from slow (or stopped and waiting to enter traffic) in one lane to being on pace with the fast lane to where other drivers don't need to react to what you're doing. I went from a pretty quick sc430 to a Hyundai and now I'm afraid to do some things I used to. SC430 however, is incredibly boring to drive fast even at 125mph cause they're so smooth, it doesn't struggle at all.

I mean, for a car with efficiency as a primary design goal, 150kW is an awful lot. It just seems with that power, it should be possible. Plus, the biggest barrier to speed, as mentioned, is drag, and that is supposed to be extra-low on the Aptera, which I figured should make those higher speeds much more possible.

Mind you, if we were going full-on with efficiency, we wouldn't be driving our own cars on the roads and all switch to public transit, but that's another story...

@Joshua Rosen The Hayabusa is 2 wheels and goes over 185mph with no safety whatsoever. I'd rather get up to that speed in an Aptera, but yeah I don't ever push past 105mph. Not so much for safety reasons, but to avoid going to jail or paying a huge fine.

Germany's roads are some of the safest around, and of those the highways are the safest roads in Germany, despite often having no speed limits. Seeing that Aptera aims to be safer that most cars, I don't really see the problem. Of course, it would be a cold day down there before I do speeds like that in the US.

I've looked at the specs of the motor and to be honest, car's aren't really my specialty so it doesn't say much. But I quite honestly would prefer higher speed over acceleration which I generally won't need (at least I've never needed acceleration that extreme). And seeing that cars with way less than 150kW can easily hit 200, that kind of made me wonder. But I guess those explanations make sense.

@Rcnesneg except that in Germany, all those modifications have to be approved by the authorities :D (which does make sense from a safety perspective)

The only way to increase your top speed, with a fixed maximum RPM of 1500, is to have wheels with a bigger circumference. The FWD and AWD have more than sufficient power for a lightweight vehicle like Aptera.

You don't even need supercars here to get to those speeds. I recently pushed a (carsharing) Renault Twingo to over 180km/h, and that's definitely everything other than a supercar... that thing had pretty terrible acceleration. I would rather have a higher top speed than crazy acceleration, but then I guess that's a bit of a Germany-specific request.