i Am a little worried about Elaphe and the potential that they may not actually deliver a competent reliable product or Possibly even go out of business at some point. Is Elaphe vapor ware? Can anyone post a link to where a motor can be purchased? I’ve been in contact with them directly and they Seem unwilling to make any sales to low volume Buyers. Other than lordstown does any other manufacturer use Elaphe?
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certainly a risk as a lot of the design/benefits and production schedule from an Aptera are dependent on a reliable source of wheel motors. Hopefully, if like the aerospace industry, there is a workaround if the motors are not available in quantity when needed for a particular production run, especially the first one. Of course one work around is to buy them in small quantities in advance but that requires capital that I do not believe Aptera has
1 small problem.... Lordstown is a scam. with a lot of fake orders with no cash in the game from actual buyers. Everything they say isn't worth the time to read it (nay, type it).
Lordstown is supposed to start production in September and they need 4 motors per vehicle - Alaphe's ability to supply that kind of volume should be somewhat settled by the end of the year.
They are a startup, and visited the first incarnation of Aptera over 10 years ago. The founders have stayed in touch since that time and the Aptera Founders will be making a visit over to Elaphe soon, and send a production ready vehicle over for testing at their test track when it is ready.. They have delivered low volumes for test mules on several platforms but as far as I know they are not a production level supplier yet. They do have quite a bit of EU funded support for their work and are leading the ASTM standards work for wheel motor certification. I think it is correct to assume that they are a risk factor as is any startup. There are other potential wheel motor suppliers if Elaphe doesn't work out, mostly from Asia. I believe Aptera is charging around $2500 for a wheel motor for their vehicle at retail.