The selling points for me:
Continuous range (some of us aren't millionaires with 30 more hours to add to an already long trip. If I am driving 12 hours to a destination, solar isn't going to cut it on a 700 mile trip)
Tires. Where's the spare? How much are tires? How do you intend to change them?
Price. Can you keep it comparable to a 2020 Prius in price AND outrange a prius with better gas mileage? If not, you are wasting my time.
The Prius is an attempt to forestall the BEV. It's an ICE with E assist. Toyota has lobbied against the BEV more than anyone. They just announced their turnaround plan, a BEV in 5 years. Too little, too late for me. I won't forget their obstruction. I will reward Aptera for their innovation.
BEV systems are still using very dirty to manufacture and dangerous metals. Keep in mind that the prius has been here for far longer than Tesla, and is more affordable to a wider market. If anything, the prius demonstrates a long range approach to fuel economy. Do you even know where your "innovative" power comes from? How it's generated? Or are you one of those people that just thinks somehow solar (which also uses very dangerous to produce materials) is magically going to save you when you can't make ends meet?
Doesn't the Aptera use in-wheel (hub) motors? That would make it impossible to easily remove the wheel and install a spare. Hopefully it has some type of run-flat tires?
Runflats are incredibly expensive and heavy. Even more expensive when they need replaced.
Replying to Ken's points: The hub motor no more gets in the way of changing the tires than your brakes do in your car today. The standard Aptera motor package will be on typical 16" rims with a 195/45/r16 tire.
Here's an image of the hub motor I got off Aptera's Facebook group:
Note the bolts that will allow you to mount the rims and tire. The bottom half of the front tire covers pop off so you can change the tires like on an ordinary car.
Replying to yournot's questions:
1) How far do you drive in a day without stopping? The longest range Aptera can go 1000 miles (EPA test cycle) between charges, and can charge at a rate of up to 500 miles per hour. So you can do your 700 mile trip without stopping to charge at all if you want. I know I'd need to recharge (and discharge) myself a few times during that trip, even if the car won't need to. If I stopped at a rest stop with a charging station, I could add 250 miles in half an hour, enough for another 4 or so more hours of highway driving.
So do you really need a gas engine, muffler, fuel tank, oil changes, etc.? I don't think so. However if you really can't live without a fuel burning car, the new Aptera is not for you.
2) Many cars today don't come with spare tires. You could always buy an extra tire & rim and lug it around. My current car, a Chevy Volt, doesn't have one. It does come with a pump and goop to plug a leak, although I've never used the goop (now out of date) in the almost seven years I've owned the car. I've been meaning to buy a simple patch kit. I've got AAA, but I've never had to call them. I've had a few slow leaks over the years from running over screws and other metal in the road, but nothing a patch kit couldn't fix. Each of those times I could always pump up the soft tire & drive to a gas station to get that patched before it ran flat.
3) The upfront price may be a higher than a Prius Prime (I'm not sure what they're going for today after rebates.) However the Aptera gets infinite miles per gallon of gas. (1000 / 0 = infinity!) So the lifetime cost, including gas, electricity, oil changes, and other engine maintenance, will be lower for the Aptera than for any fuel burner driven a normal number of miles.
Let's start with the tire. That sounds fine for some people, but a spare is needed. Too many times have I seen people stuck.
Now, you might be in the one or two places where you can find an electric charger on every corner, but out here in the rest of the USA there's maybe 200-300 gas stations between each charging station that if you were lucky enough you might not have to wait in line for. Imagine getting there and 4 other vehicles are waiting in line to charge. There goes a few hours where you do what? While here I am buzzing by with a 5-10 minute refill every two hours just to take a break. Who is going to get there first?
When you talk about a lifetime of cost, do you include the battery you are wearing out? How much do you think that costs the environment? Do you even know how they are made?
Again, this sounds like a toy, maybe for people that already have millions to waste and days to waste on trips. Ask yourself, is this "investment" in stopping and waiting to charge reasonable for the average person? A person that works to make money, not some trust fund child that has time and money to burn while their "bad year" is when their stocks might fall below 8%.
As a commuter, if I only had 5 miles to go, I'm sure it would be efficient enough if parked in the perfect direct light 90% of the year, but most people commute 20+ minutes a day and need to take out a loan to buy a car. This just won't catch on unless it does and is a whole lot better.
Don't get me wrong, as a concept it's nice but hardly practical. Last Feb I drove the family to Disney in my prius. There was room, and it only cost about $50 round trip in gas. The time savings alone on family trips is incentive enough not to go electric until it actually matures. Maybe battery swapping stations might be a better idea. Only 20 minutes instead of hours.
Regarding spare tires: A little research on my part indicates the Prius no longer comes with a spare tire either. Apparently, like my old 2014 Chevy Volt, they come with "fix a flat" kits. Of course you can always buy one and keep it with you if you are feeling the odds are against you, or you're traveling in some back country places.
You won't need to stop at all along the way because of Aptera's long range, just charge it while you sleep at your road trip destination. Aptera has a multiple day road trip range, much further than the Prius battery + gas tank. You can plug an Aptera into any 120 or 240 volt outlet or Level 2 charging station to "fill it up" at up to 50 miles/hour; that's 500 miles in 10 hours overnight. At a fast DC charger you could add 250 miles in half an hour, while you stretch, eat, relax or shop.
This 1st Aptera will be a great car for short or long distance commuting, and for 1 or 2 person road trips, as long as you aren't planning to drive more than say, 800 miles per day. I know I would never want to drive more than about 600 miles per day, with multiple rest stops along the way.
Then, at your motel or resort with Level 2 destination chargers, you could totally recharge for the next day's adventure while you sleep. A free app like PlugShare (www.plugshare.com) will show you all the places you can charge today and even help you plan your road trip, showing all the 10's of 1000's of charging stations across North America.
This first Aptera isn't for everyone and it doesn't appear to be the vehicle for you, hybrid or no. You can't drive your family anywhere in it, since it is a 2 seat only roadster, not a family car.
I suggest you check back in a year or 2 by which time Aptera Motors will hopefully have their 5 or 6 seat, 4 wheeled, efficient family EV designed, produced and ready for sale, if that's what you're looking for.
In that interval, 10,000's more fast charging stations will have been be added across this country in shopping centers and parking lots everywhere, and the price of batteries and therefore EV's will continue to drop to be much closer to price parity with fuel burning cars.
My vision of the near future: In a few (2?) years, once EV's drop below price parity of polluting cars, those old cars will begin to die out because they will have become too expensive to keep, except by rich, classic car collectors. Then fuel pumps will begin to close for lack of business, and in 2 decades you will need an app just to navigate on road trips to find a rare, operating gas station.
Let me ask you - do YOU even know how lithium ion batteries are made today - not ten years ago? Are you aware that most modern LI batteries are 50+% recyclable and that all the metals in them can be reused (the non-recyclable parts are mostly plastics)? Are you aware that the current projected lifespan of an automotive LI battery is 200,000 miles - and that, when the capacity to run a vehicle is diminished, that same battery can be used for grid storage or for backup storage at a house or business? Are you aware that MOST modern EVs can DC charge to 80% in 20-30 minutes, not "hours"? Are you aware that the charging lines you see on the news are for Tesla vehicles and then only at specific high-traffic, high-ownership locations in California? Do you remember the 70's - when we had to wait in line for HOURS to buy 2 to 5 gallons of rationed gasoline?
It seems that a lot of your "knowledge" is based on antiquated information - as is your belief that most cars come with spare tires: Toyota stopped putting them in the Prius in 2017. At last count there are over 200 models from all manufacturers sold in the US that do not have spares: Most include a fix-a-flat kit but the more expensive brands use run-flat tires.
So, yeah, we get it - a 2-seat vehicle isn't for you: We won't see you in a Corvette or a Miata, either. But, for some of us, the Aptera will push all the right buttons. I'm tired of my country being on its knees to OPEC and I'm tired of burning petroleum and polluting the atmosphere. I work for a living and work hard for the little I earn - so I want it to stretch as far as it can: Lower maintenance and fuel costs will help. With a longer-range EV like Aptera I'll be able to go most everywhere I need to go without stopping to charge and, for the few 1200+ mile journeys I make each year, I'll continue to stop for 20 minutes after every 300 miles or so - just as I do now - but in an Aptera I'll be charging at every other stop.