Totally geeking out on Aptera this weekend, and I've listened to Nathan's interview twice. A few notable items (and I don't know if Nathan has "marketing approved" numbers, or if they've changed).
Coefficient of drag is .09 (I think I have read on this site as .15)
Roughly 6,200 orders as of last week. He says your delivery would be "well into next year" if you ordered one today. (My back of the envelope at $35K/vehicle, about $200 million in pre-orders).
Chris Anthony has had static solar panels in his garden for the last two years running a drivetrain to come up with an estimate of daily added range from solar.
They will be starting pre-production models in 2-3 weeks then, to testing, homologation, and certification. He says he hopes by late summer they'll be "cranking out as fast as they can." He said the original estimate was 5K the first year of production and 8-10K the following year.
Nathan confirmed they at least started discussions with Tesla on using their charging network, but doesn't know the status
The noise level is "eerily quiet." Apparently the foam in the monocoque is a great sound insulator, and with motors in the wheels and no "creaks" from the bonded resin cabins, it's very, very quiet.
Overall my impression is that Nathan is incredibly smart, knowledgeable, sincere, and totally dedicated to delivering something incredible. I love the fact that Aptera seems to be run by engineers with a vision. Could I be driving my reservation #(1)2131 within a year? Fingers crossed!
Here is a summary of items in the video:
7:00 Coefficient of drag .09
8:00 Headroom for 6'4"
9:30 Needs to be less than 1,800 pounds to qualify as motorcycle
10:50 Strength of monocoque
13:45 Solar panels
18:00 Crash testing
21:30 Torque vectoring and ABS on motors
22:50 Production timeline. Start pre-production models in 2-3 weeks then to testing, certification. Late summer cranking out as fast as they can.
24:30 Tesla charge plug confirms discussion was started with Tesla
26:40 Right to repair
36:00 A/C and heating
42:45 Solar panels
51:20 Service
53:30 Noise level "Eerily quiet"
59:00 Production timeline. 6,200 orders as of last week, delivery well into next year if you made a reservation today. Says original plan was 5k first year, 8-10k for year 2
I finally watched the Aptera part, & 3 things stood out to me:
- This one is pretty huge: He says brake-eliminating tech exists! Just motors can do a panic stop to zero. That means you can delete the weight & cost & complexity of all the rotors, calipers, hoses, lines, master cylinder/reservoir/fluid, & brake pump (not sure if all BEVs have one, but mine does).
- He specified honeycomb core sandwiched in plain fiberglass, although with epoxy resin which is vastly superior to REALLY plain fiberglass in polyester resin. I thought honeycomb/glass was the 1st-gen only, & it's now foam-core sandwiched in carbon/hemp.
- He specified regular auto glass. Laminated windshield & tempered windows, NOT plastic. I'd think they could save a lot of weight with aircraft-style polycarbonate.
Another point he made regarding an area I really was worried about is the wall height of the tires and common tire sizes. He mentioned they are commonly available tires with high sidewalls and the rear tire has even higher sidewall to reduce pothole damage.
I have driven a BMW i3 with the 20” wheels (short sidewalls) for over 4 years and have suffered 8 blowouts and tow situations due to those short sidewall tires.
Ya, short sidewalls seem pretty highly over-rated to me. With all else equal*, they increase total vehicle mass, rotational inertia AND unsprung weight.
*Same wheel & tire width, construction, tread depth, etc.
Polycarbonate is resistant enough even for headlights, which are even more exposed to flying stones than a windshield. Same goes for motorcycle windshields. Motorcycle visors are higher up, but much more vertical to take direct dust impact.
I'm glad the windows are glass. Maybe it would allow defroster wires.
Polycarbonate is not suitable for daily use as a car windshield. It would be ruined after one use of an ice scraper. It is easily pitted and micro scratched. Even on a motorcycle windshield they have to be polished on a yearly basis. It's ok for a race car, but they get used a couple of weekends a year. Look closely at polycarbonate headlight lenses after 15,000 miles, they are sandblasted. After 10 years, they are yellow and cloudy. Polycarbonate helmet shields are also subject to pitting within 10,000 miles.
Glass is the right choice, even if it is more weight.
Totally geeking out on Aptera this weekend, and I've listened to Nathan's interview twice. A few notable items (and I don't know if Nathan has "marketing approved" numbers, or if they've changed).
Coefficient of drag is .09 (I think I have read on this site as .15)
Roughly 6,200 orders as of last week. He says your delivery would be "well into next year" if you ordered one today. (My back of the envelope at $35K/vehicle, about $200 million in pre-orders).
Chris Anthony has had static solar panels in his garden for the last two years running a drivetrain to come up with an estimate of daily added range from solar.
They will be starting pre-production models in 2-3 weeks then, to testing, homologation, and certification. He says he hopes by late summer they'll be "cranking out as fast as they can." He said the original estimate was 5K the first year of production and 8-10K the following year.
Nathan confirmed they at least started discussions with Tesla on using their charging network, but doesn't know the status
The noise level is "eerily quiet." Apparently the foam in the monocoque is a great sound insulator, and with motors in the wheels and no "creaks" from the bonded resin cabins, it's very, very quiet.
Overall my impression is that Nathan is incredibly smart, knowledgeable, sincere, and totally dedicated to delivering something incredible. I love the fact that Aptera seems to be run by engineers with a vision. Could I be driving my reservation #(1)2131 within a year? Fingers crossed!
Here is a summary of items in the video:
7:00 Coefficient of drag .09
8:00 Headroom for 6'4"
9:30 Needs to be less than 1,800 pounds to qualify as motorcycle
10:50 Strength of monocoque
13:45 Solar panels
18:00 Crash testing
21:30 Torque vectoring and ABS on motors
22:50 Production timeline. Start pre-production models in 2-3 weeks then to testing, certification. Late summer cranking out as fast as they can.
24:30 Tesla charge plug confirms discussion was started with Tesla
26:40 Right to repair
36:00 A/C and heating
42:45 Solar panels
51:20 Service
53:30 Noise level "Eerily quiet"
59:00 Production timeline. 6,200 orders as of last week, delivery well into next year if you made a reservation today. Says original plan was 5k first year, 8-10k for year 2
59:50 Aerodynamics
1:01:30 Funding
1:03:10 Cost
I finally watched the Aptera part, & 3 things stood out to me:
- This one is pretty huge: He says brake-eliminating tech exists! Just motors can do a panic stop to zero. That means you can delete the weight & cost & complexity of all the rotors, calipers, hoses, lines, master cylinder/reservoir/fluid, & brake pump (not sure if all BEVs have one, but mine does).
- He specified honeycomb core sandwiched in plain fiberglass, although with epoxy resin which is vastly superior to REALLY plain fiberglass in polyester resin. I thought honeycomb/glass was the 1st-gen only, & it's now foam-core sandwiched in carbon/hemp.
- He specified regular auto glass. Laminated windshield & tempered windows, NOT plastic. I'd think they could save a lot of weight with aircraft-style polycarbonate.
Polycarbonate is fine for aircraft where sandblasting from road dust is not a concern.
Another point he made regarding an area I really was worried about is the wall height of the tires and common tire sizes. He mentioned they are commonly available tires with high sidewalls and the rear tire has even higher sidewall to reduce pothole damage.
I have driven a BMW i3 with the 20” wheels (short sidewalls) for over 4 years and have suffered 8 blowouts and tow situations due to those short sidewall tires.
Ya, short sidewalls seem pretty highly over-rated to me. With all else equal*, they increase total vehicle mass, rotational inertia AND unsprung weight.
*Same wheel & tire width, construction, tread depth, etc.
Polycarbonate is resistant enough even for headlights, which are even more exposed to flying stones than a windshield. Same goes for motorcycle windshields. Motorcycle visors are higher up, but much more vertical to take direct dust impact.
I'm glad the windows are glass. Maybe it would allow defroster wires.
Polycarbonate is not suitable for daily use as a car windshield. It would be ruined after one use of an ice scraper. It is easily pitted and micro scratched. Even on a motorcycle windshield they have to be polished on a yearly basis. It's ok for a race car, but they get used a couple of weekends a year. Look closely at polycarbonate headlight lenses after 15,000 miles, they are sandblasted. After 10 years, they are yellow and cloudy. Polycarbonate helmet shields are also subject to pitting within 10,000 miles.
Glass is the right choice, even if it is more weight.
I brought up defrost wires on another thread of this forum & was corrected by polycarbonate's heat resistance.
One to three annual oil changes compares pretty well to MAYBE every 15,000 mile windshield polishing.
Nathan did say they are using the Sun Power Maxeon solar cells.
Maxeon Solar Cell Technology | SunPower Global
(9) SunPower cell breaking demo - YouTube