I purchased a Honda Insight in 2001 and drove it for 15 years and 225,000 miles (362,000 km). It still remains the best car I have ever owned and these include a 2019 BMW and a 1970 Porsche 914/6. But the Insight, also designed to be highly wind and rolling resistance efficient, quickly lost its edge on mountain passes. When the battery discharged on the climb, the car slowed to 35 mph. How does the Aptera perform on long (Rocky Mountain pass) hills? The second major joy of the Insight was Honda service. In 225,000 miles of driving I needed only one major service. This was to replace one of the wheels that had been so finely milled that it had a pinhole. Other than that and the battery replacement (which was well beyond the initial expectation) the car was flawless. What and how would one have the Aptera serviced and how would Aptera warranty the car and its components? (I understand that EVs require much less service than gas powered cars.)
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Thanks Bruce! My BEV battery has a bigtime-overkill cooling system*, so I forgot how heat could be a problem with marginal cooling. It was pretty hot out when I drove an air-cooled eGolf to BigBear, with 20 miles of 5% grade at around 50mph, & it was fine too though.
I wonder which Aptera model choice is best for long hot hills, or if these factors cancel themselves out:
A bigger battery generates less heat at the same output power, & also takes longer to heat up, BUT it's heavier so it takes more output power to haul it uphill.
*Liquid cooled, with the liquid chilled below ambient by the A/C fluid!