Aptera might be, unintentional, an EV amphibian vehicle

The Aptera is all about efficiency. Keep it simple, light, efficient & affordable. It needs to be stable & comfortable on long highway trips and still be narrow enough to navigate tight city streets & parking garages. All this while being repairable by the layman owner. Less is more!

Actually, I don’t intent to make the Aptera amphibious. I don’t want it to be a submarine, spacecraft and for certain I don't want the Aptera to take off and fly.

What I mean is that by nature of its construction, unintentionally, it could have amphibious properties.

‘For a boat it is convenient if the vehicle is floating in water, is steerable and has a directional stability and there is a propulsion, so you can get somewhere.

Considering floating: some petrol heads told me that the cabin of the old VW beetle was waterproof and, as long as one kept the doors closed, the VW beetle would float when in water.

The Aptera is a lightweight construction of composite materials. Depending on how the four main parts are attached to each other, the cabin might be watertight and able to flat like the old VW beetle. In the Netherlands we have quite a few roads along canals. People tend to drive sometimes off the road into the canal ending on the bottom of it. Some people survive this, most not. For me this floating possibility of the Aptera would be a nice safety feature.

Electricity and water is a difficult combination. I heard rumors that the early Tesla's where terrible when crashed and on fire, extinguishing it with water could lead to electrocution. The same for the early solar panels in houses, if the house was on fire it was impossible to extinguish it with water because of risk of electrocution. Those are foreseeable problems in case of an accident or if the car gets into the water. I expect that in those cases the Aptera at least will not electrocute you or set afire. I hope that the batteries the electronics and the mechanics will remain intact, safe and functional.

So in my simple fantasy the Aptera might be able to float and be safe and moreover I would be glad about this safety feature.

Considering the steerable and directional stability: Last summer I had a talk with the aerodynamic engineer of the Lightyear One car. She told me that making a car aerodynamic is one thing. Making the car stable at higher speeds is something else. They were really glad that the car they developed performed well in the wind tunnel tests. Mercedes developed an extremely aerodynamic car for the Le Mans races. Unfortunately, under certain circumstances, Mark Webber took off and the car started to fly, rather inconvenient at high speeds. LMP1 cars have a longitudinal vertical plate behind the cockpit to get directional stability, air planes have a vertical stabilizer for the same reason, as arrows do. The front and rear fenders Aptera has, diminish turbulence around the body and probably give also this needed stability when driving fast.

Again, in my fantasy, if the Aptera could float and be safe in water, with the fenders it will be steerable and have directional stability.

Considering propulsion: I remember US pictures of radar steamers with paddle wheels at it sides on the Mississippi. The Aptera has two or three wheels turning around. Maybe with the Off-road kit fenders the wheels could give enough propulsion to get somewhere.

Considering this the Aptera might be an amphibian, even not designed for being that.

If the Aptera would not sink and be able to float on water, that would be a nice safety feature I would be glad about.

How Aptera will be, we don’t know. The rear suspension on the video of the prototype Aptera is completely different from the earlier released pictures. The batteries on the pictures look to be modular, but on questions relating to the battery pack it might be not. So far we are sure about the looks of the Aptera, the in-wheel Elaphe motors and the Crank software infotainment.