With a 3 wheeled vehicle, the first things I want to know about are how will it ride and drive, and will it handle differently than a typical car? Will the Cg (center of gravity) be such that it will be stable? Obviously, the location and layout of the battery pack will be key to a good Cg.
Will the suspension handle the greater unsprung weight of the wheel motors? The upside of this is it helps the Cg by locating the motors inside the wheels, and it lowers the overall weight by eliminating the gearbox and driveshafts.
I think that the wheel motors help improve the aerodynamics; due to the absence of the driveshafts. Round shapes have much higher drag than do airfoil shapes, and a spinning round shape is even higher drag.
I drive a three wheeler a 85 Trihawk the CG is 12 inches off the ground and behind the engine and in front of the driver, passenger. It is FWD. It corners up to .91 G. I wish they would do a skid pad test to see, what it can do and what happens when it is pushed to its limit.. Putting most of the weight of the vehicle nearest the 2 wheels and as low as possible makes it stable. Trihawk is 75 % up front weight .
That drag on wheels you mentioned is exactly why it wears both "pants" and a "skirt"! ;-)
I, too, am eager to hear reviews of its ride quality. It is sure to be quite stable, 'cause those liquid cooled batteries are centered and low to the ground and HEAVY. (The weight difference between the 60 KWH and 100 KWH versions is 400 lbs.)
Harry, where did you find those weights, estimate or published. I’m interested in the weight of the 60 kWh model. Also has Aptera published passenger plus cargo weight capacity?
The 600 mile/ 60 KWH version weight was published in the original article announcing the Aptera last year, https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/exclusive-3wheeled-aptera-reboots-as-worlds-most-efficient-electric-car. Both weights are listed in this article: https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/aptera-new-solar-ev-can-cover-1000-miles-no-charging-1234585242/
I haven't seen anything about max. weight capacity. I did find the following 2 statements from Chris Anthony about the passenger & cargo weight used to calculate mileage:
Great articles, Harry. Thank you for posting them.
Actually the 1800lb is for the 40kwh version, so the 60kwh would come out at around 2000lb.
Jim, 1800 lbs is clearly the weight mentioned for the 60 KWH battery version according to the August 2019 IEEE Spectrum article. Do you have a newer updated reference?