Although I fear the Aptera will never make it to market, I still made a reservation because the Aptera could serve a large and neglected population of drivers. I am referring to Single Occupant Vehicles (SOV), Renters (including apartments), and Childless drivers.
The majority of drivers in the U.S. commute in a SOV. Yet, all EVs from currently established major manufactures are four, or more, passenger vehicles. I don’t know if this is to make them more marketable or the size is needed for the batteries. What I do know is current EVs are no better than Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) when it comes to wasted vehicle size.
Two of the biggest concerns for EV adoption is being able to charge it and running out of energy:
“In the poll conducted last October, which surveyed 1,510 drivers in the U.S. during the middle of October, including 250 electric-car drivers, 74 percent of all respondents agreed that electric cars are the future. Among EV drivers, the number rose to 79 percent.
The biggest obstacle wasn't range but available charging infrastructure: 61 percent of respondents cited more charging infrastructure as the biggest factor holding back their purchase, similar to the 58 percent who say their biggest concern is running out of power.
The same concern about not being able to find a charging station was the second biggest obstacle for buyers considering purchasing an EV at 49 percent.”
The fact that close to half of U.S residents live in or on rental properties (Figure 2) makes charging EVs less than adequate or impossible. Using myself as an example, I currently live in an apartment. I am lucky because my apartment has an attached two car garage. However, there is no way I would be able to convince my landlord to install an EV charger even if I paid for it. Seeing as most renters have to live with on or off-street parking, good luck getting a dedicated EV charging station(s) installed without some type of incentive for the property owner.
Even though the number of childless singles and couples are growing, both ICE and EV makers ignore this statistic and continue to remove small two door sedans, and two seaters, in favor of large four doors and SUVs. The day of the nuclear family is over and no current vehicle manufacturer is adapting, making it impossible to buy a small EV like the Aptera.
“The share of adults living without children has climbed 19 points since 1967 to 71.3 percent.”
So where does the Aptera fit in with all of this?
The largest problem right now is the SOV daily use. That number is huge and replacing ICE vehicles with cleaner daily drivers is a win no matter how it’s done. However, I think the Aptera comes closer than any other EV manufacturer in solving this issue by providing a small easy to charge EV that is not larger than what is necessary for a daily commute. Hopefully the Aptera will also appeal to the growing number of people that don’t need, or want, a family car.
To put it another way: The overall large scale market viability of this vehicle and others like it depends directly on how aggressively our public policy pushes toward net zero. Both the low operating energy needs and the low overall material resource requirements to build will put it in a very advantageous position if aggressive carbon taxes and related policies are put into place. The economic equations first need to change and then attitudes will follow about how we should be getting around. Until then, it is limited to a subset of the environmentally conscious crowd.
Safety among small vehicles is allways an elephant in the room. Smart cars made good job handling that concern, Tridion safety cell was phenomenal. We have wild life here in northern Europe, and accidents with moose are often severe. I know that Aptera's roof is strong, but I'm worried about stregth of the A-pillar. If I could add something to Santa's gift list I would wish structural safety cage. It is something that I don't want to see is how car is made convertible in a split second after hitting a moose 60 mph. This adds weight and bulk around the windshield, but I personally would appreciate it. I know that this is not something that very many of you consider, but it is reality here. Volvo's manufacturing is in Finland's neighboring country, Sweden. Greetings from Finland!
The vehicle, which is not currently being built, is a comfortable, affordable, long-lasting, durable and low-consumption, highway-capable car. There are small and inexpensive cars that are horribly noisy and tend not last high mileage. I had quite good small car, which was also quite safe, but I had a doubt about how long that small engine would last. That car was also noisy, road noise was almost deafening. There are abundant supply of small, noisy, unsafe, unstable and not highway capable vehicles that don´t last high mileage. I like many others, travel to work daily, my commute is 50 miles per day, and top speed is roughly 75 mph. I live in Europe, and I´m afraid that we have here some protectionism also. German has big car factories and big influence in Europe, France and Italy have some car manufacturing also. They tend to protect themselves.
I still wonder, would it be possible to make it EU admitted vehicle:
L5e-A
(1) Length less than 4000 mm
(2) Width less than 2000 mm
(3) Height less than 2500 mm
(4) Three wheels
(5) Vehicle mass (ready to drive) less than 1000 kg
(6) Vehicle that does not fill L2e (3-wheeled moped) conditions
(7) Vehicle that does not fill L5e-B (3-wheeled commercial vehicle) conditions
(8) Seats up to for 5 person, driver included
Yes as attached in the above person’s reply... This is only a starting point to get Aptera launched..... Just like Tesla did with their “roadster”:
https://dfon51l7zffjj.cloudfront.net/uploads/company_attachment/file/51975-bwe45xy9axIVOuR2TcC7FPGT/Wefunder_Investor_Presentation_v2.pdf
How many two seater cars do you notice while driving any given day? Seem most people want more seats. One common complaint about the Volt was it only seats four. Granted there are situations where a two seater or even a single seat would be ideal...
Federal standards in the US mandate highway lane width at 144" - so that's an Aptera and 56" to spare...
Aptera can reduce its width?
Many automakers and/or startup tried to make cars small and efficient, but no one bought them. Any car has to fulfill practical needs, but should also be desirable. I would never buy an ugly car!!! Aptera is efficient, good looking, attractive and since they can reduce the width under 2m, practical too.
Just think about Tesla. Sexy cars outsold Zoe and Leaf even at double price (and many other reasons).
I follow Aptera Dec 4, 2020 announcement , I translated it to spanish and published on my web site.
Done 😀
Thanks for a great post. Could you please post this to the Reddit discussion forum at r/Apteramotors ?
At $150,000 I would not consider this viable for the average consumer. Also it is made in limited amounts. I guess I should add a disclaimer: I am referring to established large volume car manufactures that are not limited in distribution or compliance vehicles.
"What I do know is current EVs are no better than Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) when it comes to wasted vehicle size."
Unfortunately, the Aptera is actually quite a large vehicle.
The Tango electric is quite unique in how narrow and short it is, yet corners very well!
But, it costs a lot more than an Aptera so not realistic at this time. http://www.commutercars.com/