It sure seems like the construction of the Apteras hull will be a key feature in its safety. I am simply wondering what the added safety benefit would be in an Aptera with airbags vs without. With traditional autos crumple zones are used to absorb impacts, but the design of the Aptera appears more like an F1 car, or plane cockpit, both of which don't use airbags.
The 3 wheel design was chosen in part by Aptera because of the reduced regulation and would not require airbags in many states. There is a lot of data out on airbag safety so I am already agreeing that my numbers are just one data set, and I am sure that you can find others, my numbers are just for example. The addition of airbags over just seat belts improved survivability in head on collisions by 7% in traditional cars. Would it be higher or lower in an Aptera with the two piece hull construction? iii.org shows that any occupant of a car has a 1 in 42k change of dying in a car accident per year. If airbags were an option for $1500 and they were shown to take you chance of dying in an accident from 1 in 42k to 1 in 45k would you spend the money? Should it be mandatory? I know its easy to say safety at any cost when we come from a privileged position, but what about the people that get priced out of an Aptera because of this? I am not making an argument either way since the data does not exist yet, but I wonder if we as a planet would be better off with more Apteras replacing old CO2 emitting cars because they are cheaper due to a lack of airbags.
I believe front airbags will be standard with Aptera in any case, and the passenger bag can be switched off.
The purpose of the airbag is to prevent you from being thrown forward from the seat. The seatbelt helps, but it doesn't restrain your head, or prevent your upper body from rotating.
F1 racing cars don't have airbags because they have other (better) ways to restrain the driver - namely, a 5-point harness instead of 3-point seatbelt, and a padded helmet and neck support which are secured to the seat. The car body construction has nothing to do with this.
A 5 point harness costs around $70 in mass market, seat belt airbags are $2000 per set. Just looking at the economics of diminishing marginal return regarding safety. The Wuling HongGuang Mini EV is the best selling EV in China. It does not have many of the traditional safety features of larger vehicles but what it does have is a very low sales price of around 5k. This has helped move thousands of people into clean EV's instead of Mopeds, old cars many of which probably don't have airbags, etc. The average age of a car in USA is 12 years old. In lower income communities it goes as high as 20 years. We need a mass market low cost (20k is not low) EV that the fuel savings alone is enough to cover the cost of purchase ( the VW Bug of EV's) and because of the three wheel design and hyper efficiency Aptera has the potential to be that. Air bags are not used in Commercial vehicles, light aircrafts, on motorcycles, UTV's and power boats but we still use all these motor vehicles in our lives. I also am an investor and reservation holder of Archimoto, also a 3 wheeler 2 passenger. It will not have airbags and has a smaller footprint. The goal of Archimoto is to get the price down to just 12k a unit. This is great but the Aptera is much better equipped for cold climates and longer commutes so I was just hoping the a focus on cost would not be forgotten and we could see similar pricing goals for Aptera. Climate Change is here and we don't have a decade to stop it, we need to start thinking differently about what we do and how we live and that is why I am writing this post.
@Andreas Blomst , do you follow Aptera on social media? If so, you'd know that the most common knee-jerk reaction to seeing the Aptera is "death trap!" The only way Aptera can succeed is if they do everything possible to reassure buyers that it's as safe as a regular car. Omitting airbags is not a good start.
@Ken Kobayashi "most common knee-jerk reaction to seeing the Aptera is "death trap!" Ironic since its already been announced that the Aptera will have airbags, I guess the airbags are not building confidence in Social Media posters. Also if you read my post I never said anything about omitting airbags. I simply suggested that the additional cost for airbags in a vehicle that is not required to have them, will price out that vehicle for some people. My consideration was if the airbag system should be optional like it was in Mercedes and BMW from 1984-1990 (when driver side airbags were required). I respect your opinion but I disagree that safety is the "make or break" issue for Aptera. The lack of a 4th wheel and only having 2 seats in a vehicle that costs $30k after tax and license is the major risk to Aptera. Look at any 2 seater car and look at the sales numbers compared to an equally priced 4 or 5 seater. All that being said I still think there is market enough to make Aptera really successful (if I did not think so I would not have invested) but I am very concerned about the price.
I beleive that aptera is pushing hard for safety for 2 reasons. The first is that the majority of people have safety fears when it comes to 3 wheeled cars and the second reason may have to do with a potential partnership with tesla. If aptera can prove this vehicle is as safe as a tesla that will attract much more interest than a lower price and i don't need to explain how huge it would be if aptera can secure a supply agreement with tesla.
@Riley You make a good point in that a partnership with Tesla would require car like safety features and a partnership like that would really result in the potential for massive growth. I appreciate that angle and thought.
Cost reduction seems to me much easier by simply reducing the battery, which Aptera says is still the biggest cost item. Their current smallest-available battery gives about 625% of the average US daily range requirement.
Cutting its cost in HALF still gives over 312% of the daily average, which is more than an eGolf or the formerly-best-selling-EV (Leaf). The reduced weight allows cutting motor cost in half by making a RWD model with Corolla-like acceleration.
In one of the interviews, the Aptera guy says that controlling the front wheel motors is used as a sort of ”Power Steering”, so using only a rear drive would likely effect handling.
I saw that interview, but properly-designed unpowered steering is fine for a lightweight vehicle. Aptera is much lighter than my RWD 240Z which had fantastic unpowered steering. Another example is 27 years of RWD Porsche 911s.
My current FWD BEV is MUCH heavier than Aptera, & with power steering off (fuse pulled) it's only a bit more effort than I'd prefer ONLY at zero speed (parking). At 1 mph & up it's actually nicer with it off than on (too light).
In one of Sandy Munro's YT videos he mention Aptera may incorporate seatbelt airbags.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlFJs5OY-nM
https://www.aptera.us/forum/main/comment/6004a96fc5842500ce7b1156 reason to replace any rear window with solid structure for crash safety efficiency and more