I am curious if this AWD three-wheel (w/ electric motor in each wheel) vehicle with low resistant tires, which only has a curb weight of ~1800, with an impressive acceleration for 0-60 mph(!)... will wear tires quickly?
(The old Aptera 2e had P165/65R14 tires (brand?) .. but not sure what is planned for the new Aptera)
[ photo from bing.com ]
I am not sure we have a forum members with a light three vehicle (same tadpole configuration design), AWD (?) , low roll resistant tire experience...to share their tire wear experiences. We know...
Driving Patterns – Certain driving maneuvers also quickly wear your tires down. Some of these maneuvers include:
Spinning your tires
Hard braking
Gast acceleration
Driving at fast speeds
So if you do a lot of city driving, avoid slamming on the accelerator or the brakes as you make your way through town. If you do, you’ll be buying a new set of tires before you know it.
I digress....Not a good comparison...but this memory brought up the subject....
I remember my wife’s past Mercedes Benz sports coupe going through tires frequently. I kept up on the tires’ air pressure, alignment and rotation. That car hugged the road, with the sport suspension.
* “Little Old Lady from Pasadena”?😁. Well she put on the miles with only MB performed regular maintenance.Her daily commute was interstate diving at 65 mph and I am sure she ever exceeded that speed😇.I had summer tires and winter snow tires for the vehicle and tried different high end tires but it seemed I replaced them more frequently. This was a much different animal, compared to the Aptera. Four wheels, a RWD vehicle . Automatic. (3400#)
* “Put an “Aptera” in your garage Hon-ey!”
[ photo from bing.com]
Speculation, even with several pertinent data points - is still speculation. It is hard to guess any of this ...
The tires on my Goldwing, which weighed less than 1800 lbs, lasted 5000 mi. for rear and around 9000 for front. On an MC there is always a sacrifice of longevity for traction. Don't know if this applies here?
My Honda Clarity PHEV is a mid-sized, HEAVY (4059 lbs.) vehicle that runs on LRR tires. After 15K miles of mostly highway driving in everything from ice and snow to asphalt-softening heat I've seen no appreciable tire wear or loss of traction. Keep in mind that everything about Aptera is designed to improve efficiency and that most aspects of ALL modern vehicles are controllable through either design engineering or software. The basic rule of tires is that high-traction, high-adhesion rubber is soft and sticky and wears quickly. Low Rolling Resistance tires use harder, less-sticky compounds and are, therefore, less likely to wear easily. It's safe to assume that Aptera will select rubber that's appropriate to the needs of the vehicle.
What about honeycomb / airless tires?
Per their answer in the FAQ
You can search in this forum “FAQ” and there you will find are some 440 answers but basically...
Too heavy( so they will no use them)