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Aperta - the solution to the problem of width in Europe ...

loswa · 2021-07-03T12:11:02.206Z

I Build Tiny Cars Out Of Old Fridges | RIDICULOUS RIDES,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4MpBPXojF4&t=29s

in General Discussions

11 comments

11 Comments

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kiteboarder

Jul 06, 2021

Identical design, except compressed width by 16% for EU compliance, maintaining proportional wheel-body gap & reducing frontal area:

kiteboarder

Jul 06, 2021

Identical design, except compressed length by 10% for EU compliance:

kiteboarder

Jul 06, 2021

EU-Legal:

Headroom maintained by leaving the height the same.

Aero maintained by keeping the wheels proportionally distant from the body, & reducing frontal area by reducing body width.

kiteboarder

Jul 06, 2021

@loswa Thanks, I'd seen those graphics of yours before & I prefer the narrower fuselage (over the shortened suspension arms) as long as there's still space inside. I should measure my own car's elbow room.

loswa

Jul 06, 2021

993cc

Jul 06, 2021

Replying to

Using narrower profile tires (which are more readily available in Europe, I believe, at least on wheel diameters of 15" and less), could lose you another 5 or so cm of width as well. narrower wheel pants could then be located closer to the fuselage with no drag penalty.

Harry Parker

Jul 06, 2021

•

Replying to

@993cc Note that a smaller wheel diameter would require a smaller in-wheel motor with less power. May still be enough if acceleration times are not so important to Europeans. Also less room for batteries and solar panels, so less solar range and a lower range limit. Lighter, though, so that helps range.

Heck, we could just make the wheel pants tail flexible so that they can bend when they hit the car's body on turns. Then we don't ruin the low drag on the straights where it counts.

993cc

Jul 06, 2021

Replying to

@Harry Parker The main problem of a smaller diameter hub motor, I think, would be the additional cost of developing it. Frankly, I wish they were going with a smaller diameter hubmotor, and higher profile, narrower tires worldwide. I guess I am fairly European in my indifference to sub-10 second 0-100 times.

Tangentially to the whole issue of compliance with European autocycle regs, I wonder, if Aptera were to meet all the automobile safety regs, would complying with autocycle regs even be necessary? Is there any reason a three wheeled vehicle can't be regulated and registered as a car? The width would still be an inconvenience on European streets, of course.

kiteboarder

Jul 06, 2021

Shrinking the width of the entire vehicle (fuselage* & track width) should yield nearly the same drag coefficient, with less frontal area, for about the same total drag.

*Maybe delete or at least reduce the center console.

dominik.glaser

Jul 05, 2021

Well they said drag increases by 10% if the wheels get nearer to the centre... Personally i would be fine with this. because decreasing drag by increasing size and therefore "incresing" drag again may help a little but if you cant use the aptera the efficienzy wont help at all

kiteboarder

Jul 04, 2021

Seriously though, if they kept the height (for tall drivers) & just "compressed" the width & length to the legal limits it would barely affect air drag.

@loswa You're really good with graphics. How about a pic with just its length & width "squished"?