I commute on a daily basis -up to 250km / 156 miles daily- and as an inhabitant of The Netherlands ending up in a traffic jam is a very likely thing, for this reason I'd like to see the following specifications:
* radar assisted cruise control (braking and accelerating at all speeds and stop/follow in low speed stop and go traffic.
* Regen braking is adjustable in 3 or 4 settings from off to very heavy braking.
* high power single phase AC (7.4kW) for home charging and DC chargeport for emergency charging. Remember, The Netherlands is not very sunny and it can rain for long periods of time. Also, I use an AC Zappi charger (https://myenergi.com/product/zappi/) which can use 100% green energy to charge the battery, indicating you'd want to make full use of your solar panels on the house to charge the car during the daytime. When you own several BEV's you may not have the luxury of having several chargeports or have only place for one vehicle (like me) on the driveway and for this reason I'd need to move the car to charge the second BEV, in this case a Kia e-Niro.
* remote controlled vehicle heater with programmable times, akin to Sievers Parking Heater app to melt the snow and ice off the windscreen and to defrost the car on the inside. See http://www.standheizungsapp.de/ for the supplier. It is like the Webasto app but much better.
* heated and ventilated seats. Heated steering wheel.
* wheel motor in all three wheels for superb traction in slippery conditions
* audio system upgradable with a good DSP amplifier and high quality speakers to enjoy lossless Flac music
* Cupholders for thermos flasks (I drink loads of tea!)
In a nutshell: I want a warm car where I can enjoy my tea whilst listening to high quality sound.
Let me know your thoughts on these specifications.
I'll come back on these points if I forgot something and I'll edit.
cheers, Melvin
Melvin, your needs make sense to me, having lived in a rainier and cooler climate location with less sunny days during my 50 working/commuting years.
just a heads up....In my experience with this forum site 1) forum members may reply with their EV experiences , which is useful but they do not yet own an Aptera, so 2) if you don’t get replies in the forum “direct from Aptera” you may want to send these in short requests via the Ask a Question field under the WeFunder site “At this time”. For me, “not yet an EV owner”....reading Electric Vehicle owners “lessons learned“ and requests, like yours...are interesting and surely will be interesting to Aptera. I find Aptera provides meaningful replies at that site location. That is....as best they can “at this stage in their start up.
I had the good fortune to see and get a test drive in the past 2009 Aptera prototype vehicle , but the new Aptera seems light years ahead in what they are planning and so much new technology is now available.
Good Luck
Will do, thanks for the advice.
As someone with no icing experience, would cranking a subwoofer accelerate the de-icing? I imagine mechanical agitation is more energy efficient.
You would need to agitate the windscreen to make it flex beyond the flexing capabilities of the ice and snow, and the latter will be impossible as snow will not be bounced off the window. You'd need extremely powerful amplifiers and many subs and this, imo, is a waste of space and weight.
A heated windscreen in combination with a blower ejecting warm air to remove any dampness from the inside of the windscreen and the inside of the door windows and to pre-heat the interior works better. Or a linked seat/steering wheel heater...
I live in New England, and I would like all of those things (though I don't think that cooled seats would be needed here). The thing I would add, is a direct heating windshield defroster - Ford and others did this all the way back in the 1970's and 1980's. They are FAR more efficient than a heated air defroster, and they are faster, too.
This is best done with a very thin (like a molecule thick, or so) layer of silver or gold in the glass - it works like a typical rear window defroster, but without the lines.
That is a good idea, Ford still has this and it seems to work pretty good. Using hot air will melt the snow of the door windows so you can drive away and see where you're going.
Seat cooling is great, I have leather seats in the Kia e-Niro and in the summer you arrive without having a sweaty back or butt, in my opinion it adds a great deal of comfort. You can have cloth seats as that will lessen the need for seat cooling but I just like the look and feel of leather seats.
I am reading some of the issues with I assume is “light” cases of ice and/or snow on a vehicle.... if that is the case... given that the Aptera in a very sleek (aerodynamic) vehicle and it has a large cargo area... with the strong slippery (Teflon-like) car covers available these days.... could that offer a passive solution for you too? Sure it is a little work ,etc, but it could also protect the Aptera. I used a vehicle cover on a small vehicle I owned before leaving NJ, that had light ice/snow events and I found it manageable. I suppose you are not benefiting from the Aptera Solar cells in those Manila conditions at that time, so covering the solar cell skin is not key at that time.
Now, here in the SW US....my environment is just the opposite with not snow or ice. I hope the full time interior heat venting of the Aptera will keep my vehicle close to ambient temperature and I imagine better than my present vehicles do with just solar reflective film.
The unique composite resin body of the Aptera has claims of some insulation value too, which may add some benefits?!
That is serious commuting...Still you are right to ask for those features. I had to pull my two deposits back from the original Aptera. It was a sad day for me. I am in for a Model Y when it is available and with self driving mode. I still want an Aptera for myself. So far I've never had to commute more than 30 Km each way (I'd move just to be close enough to ride my bike to work) although I am in a neighborhood with plenty of commuters who drive your distance each day...just nuts some are doing so in full size pickup trucks. I don't have a need for old weather either. Today was a glorious 24.5°C. We have it rough in California but we can dip down to 1-2°C when it does get really cold and I'd want my Aptera prewarmed as well. Right now, I just put a little portable electric heater in and turn it on with Alexa about 15 minutes before I get into the garage to drive away.
Currently I commute 154km on a daily basis and I expect this job to last for about a year, I'm an independant IT-Contractor -see my Linkedin page in my profile- and as such I have jobs accross the country (Netherlands is not very big mind you, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands for some information) and moving is not an option, for two reasons: I will need to move house every year or faster, and every time you buy a house a 6% tax is to be paid to the government on top of the buying price. As houses are comfortable around € 400.000 and above this doesn't make sense.
Enter the Aptera: low cost of operation, simplicity and good looks! And if priced at the right level exactly my kind of transportation!
Love California, I lived in Newport Beach for a while :)
Chris Anthony (Founder) answered my questions: https://wefunder.com/comments/80806.
It is looking very promising if all this can be delivered, I'd definately buy one and might even pick it up locally to do a road trip to New York and ship it back home.
All the best with your plans! And I am sure your location is an important market for Aptera so your delivery options may be easier than you think . Too early to tell.
Surely taking delivery at a CA plant, getting trained there on the operation and car, while meeting the staff would be a car buying life experience!
But if you follow through on your thought....
Hey “If the ⭐️ align” this could be the beginning of considering assessing a cross country Aptera Run (Caravan) 🤣
( Apteravan )
Although I am not that far from CA , living in the adjacent state and being retired ... I could consider driving my Aptera cross country to visit family back in NJ ( next to NY)
I suppose a 60 kWh model would provide an adequate range for each of the ~ 5 days to cross.
Of course feeding back the Aptervan journey story to the mother ship APTERA MOTOR CORP, while the world stays tuned!
If that works out maybe I could enhance the vehicle with more batteries for a longer range for future trips. But I have driven cross country in the US a few times.... and a 600mi/day is nice)
Just imagine an Aptera fleet ( of Apter”i” ?) crossing the US!
Some might view it an invasion
“What has landed”!
Hi Len,
good idea, if you have time for this maybe you should do this. Cost is not holding you back as the Aptera will have the lowest operational cost of any available vehicle on the market.
About picking the vehicle up from the factory is a matter of €, usually a $ price from the USA will become a € price in Europe and most of the times even more. For this reason I might pick it up and end up spending the same amount as if would pick up in The Netherlands, except that I have a nice vacation included.
I will but the idea in my TO DO BUCKET🤔 It could be fun to try to arrange with fellow Aptera owners and then I would have my family to join on a memorable vacation. We do have EV friendly hotels across the country to try to discuss/manage charging a fleet of Apterae