Winter Driving

I've driven 2 cars that have performed 180's on snowy & icy highways, so I'm very qualified to answer. :-)

Scary experiences both! One was a rear wheel drive 1980's BMW sedan on a 6 lane icy, unsalted highway. The first time was in a then new 1979 Toyota Cilica, also rear wheel drive on a snow covered, unplowed, downhill exit ramp. Both times both the cars were only lightly scuffed from slowly sliding into snow covered guard rails.

After those 2 experiences I vowed never to own a rear wheel drive car again, and to make sure my tire treads were well above the legal minimum. Never had that happen on my FWD vehicles (VW Passats & Chevy Volt).

What will help save you from that problem is Aptera's active traction control, independently controlling the torque on your 2 or 3 powered wheels. Also, not going stupidly fast on a possibly icy road is necessary as well. As long as the 2 front wheels have traction, they can control the car. I've tried hard to get my Volt to skid on an icy parking lot. It was possible, when I really tried, but it was amazingly hard to do. Anti-locking brakes on all wheels helps a lot, too.

By the way, while the Aptera's tracking width is large, it is not as large as that of big trucks, so the front wheels won't usually be making their own tracks in the snow, unless you beat both the snow plows and big trucks on the road. The 3rd wheel may be along for the ride on a slippery road, however in all cars the front wheels do most of the stopping.

In a recent video interview with Sandy Monroe, founders Chris & Steve mentioned playing with the prototype in a parking lot with the traction control turned off, having fun trying "reverse donuts". I think it was Chris who said something along the lines of, "We'll need to put up a big warning sticker on THAT option!" :-) Here's that section of the 1/2 hour video queued up for you:

Actually, lots of good info in there, so I recommend watching the whole thing.

I'm not going AWD. I lived in upstate NY, where snow covered roads are common in winter. Never owned an AWD car and never really felt the need. Just mount good tires and drive appropriately for conditions.

Such a cool car! 😎

As long as the snow is light and not re-freeze, any snow that won't fit under the wheel covers will be plowed by them. The underside of the car won't accumulate any snow due to its design.

If the tires are kept on the narrow side, grip should be no problem in snow, as the weight of the car is divided among 3 wheels, not 4, so tire load is higher than a similar weight conventional car.

Other good replies here. Just wanted to add:

The car is relatively light, but not that light. It still weights about a ton. Actually more than a ton (2200 lbs) with the biggest battery option.

Also the wheel "pants" and skirt do unclip easily. That is meant for changing the tires and such, but that could help if you need to drive through snow over 5 inches deep. I'd recoommend having chains on in that case. If it is much beyond the 9" height of the belly, you better get the snow plow attachment ( TBD: to be designed, maybe.) ;-)

Ya, when you unclip the wheel covers to put chains on, just leave the covers in the hatch (will they fit?).

I don't see how vehicle weight itself is a factor. I've driven a 1670-pound Pinto in all different kinds of snow & it's fine. Same for a 2500-Lb 240Z. Lightest of all, without even snow tires (Michelin XZX) I drove a 1550-Lb Datsun 110 past two 4x4s stuck at the side of the unploughed back road to BigBear, when the ploughed main road required chains I didn't have.

Good thing nobody had said anything to me about light cars being bad in snow.

2 wheels at the front & FWD or AWD would be better for winter. AND pushing a single steerable wheel over a slick surface would have very little control. you want the drive wheels on the front end where most of the weight typically is.

RWD is by far the worst stability wise in slick icy road conditions. if you have one steerable wheel in the front that cannot gain traction... goood luck buddy... the center of the road typically has the most ice, oil and road grime. motorcyclist know this already.

Yes. Nordic & Scandinavian countries are a large market for EVs. Over 60% of sales in Norway are EVs these days, and EVs sell in double digit percentages in several northern European countries.

Further to that... the past Apterae had many miles on the road including “in snow“ .which I heard were VG ,but this current Aptera has many more features for that condition. EVs have temperature extremes but as Harry mentioned... Nordic countries are important for EVs manufacturers, like Aptera ( I have heard)

I like their durable composite body too ,which alone has some insulating attribute.

It will be interesting to hear exactly what their Off Road option offers for snow.

Surely the AWD , torque vectoring, stability control would be a plus.

@atwooki Aptera has only just completed one prototype that is neither fully-functional nor production-ready. So, to answer your question, no - no testing has been done. As Len pointed out there was testing of the previous iteration, a decade ago, but that was a significantly different vehicle.

One can hope, with tank turn mode at some point. Them being liquid cooled means less heat radiating to the wheel wells unless temperature set point before coolant flow is high enough. Energy needed to move the car is so minimal at low speeds, don't count on it. Higher speeds, air flow refresh would prevent motor heat from helping.

I live in Atlantic Canada and we have some pretty brutal winters also. Most annoying for me is always having to knock off the slush that constantly accumulates in the wheel wells, directly behind my tires (this normally only happens after a storm, before the road salt has had a chance to melt all the leftover snow after the roads have been plowed) Sometimes I forget to knock off the slush which then freezes and I end up with "ice mudflaps" rubbing against the back of my tires. Hopefully the fender skirts on the Aptera are tough enough so kicking them to knock off stuck on slush won't cause any damage (scratches, etc.). Trying to knock slush out of the rear fender skirt looks like it could be a challenge, though.

Does the all-wheel drive option lower the range of the vehicle? It looks like it says that front wheel drive runs at 100kW of power and that all-wheel drive runs at 150kW? Or am I misunderstanding? And does that mean that the range of a vehicle with all-wheel drive will be lower?

And while we're discussing winter driving, in Iowa we get a lot of wind in winter. I know the vehicle has a low coefficient of drag, but it's also quite light weight so how well would it handle a cross wind on an icy road?

ps. How much does it weight? the spec sheet doesn't say and I'm sure the question will cross my mind if I'm ever trying to push it out of a snow drift. pps. Speaking of power, on the spec sheet there is a section titled "solar" that uses the unusual figure of 60 kM, I'm not sure whether that's supposed to say kW or km.