Aptera completes low-speed drive in its first production-intent solar electric vehicle
Aptera completes low-speed drive in its first production-intent solar electric vehicle
Spoiler Alert: The low-speed function test is short and sweet but a milestone nonetheless. Solar EV startup Aptera Motors has...
![Aptera completes low-speed drive in its first production-intent solar electric vehicle [Video]](https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/4647e452-0d66-4118-93ee-87f3298751c0.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
A few things the cynics are missing.
- The engineers who are designing this car don't have the political power to push for better mass transit.
- Even in ideal circumstances, there will still be a need for personal transport vehicles and infrastructure. Small cars will still be needed.
- Aptera has 31 employees as of 2023. If they're working overtime, it's because they're letting the company do it. Maintaining good moral is way more important in small companies.
Something I find incredibly weird about US company culture is how they talk about overtime like it's a good thing.
"Our employees worked weekends, days and nights to make this happen! We wouldn't have succeeded without people who are willing to give up their personal lives!"
I hope they not only succeed but get shares. Doing weekends or nights for a company you don't (partially) own feels like a con.
Find people who care about what they're working on and they'll go well beyond the extra mile. As an extra motivator, make it clear the company won't be around if they don't succeed. I'm sure these employees have shares, but tha only really matters if the company succeeds (extra motivation!). Unfortunately, there have been a ton of green/green-adjacent automotive "startups" that have struggled to gain a foothold. See also:
(I'm sure many others)
Here are a few other interesting green automotive startups that didn't make it:
- Sono Motors' Sion: Compact EV with solar panels, power sharing, intended to be easily repairable and included a detail manual. They had prototypes but never went to production. Now the company does niche solar applications.
- Workhorse: Series Hybrid (think Chevy Volt) Pickup truck with onboard power for tools etc (was announced around or even before Rivian). Was a very pragmatic idea IMO. Later sort-of resold to Lordstown. Now company does some other things, like drones.
- Lordstown Motors' Endurance: EV Pickup Truck with hub motors. Made a few hundred, but they have been dragging it out long enough for Ford to make electric pickups. And the idea wasn't too original even when it was announced.
Fisker is nothing but a conman, always has been. His MO is literally to start a company, secure funding, make a personal fortune and then abandon the bankrupt shell and leave customers hanging.
it is a con
Nothing says product quality like overworked employees
Been following this company’s development for over a decade now. I really want them to succeed but I have major doubts.
It’s also a bit strange to see a production-intent build of a solar electric vehicle without any solar panels. Still, Aptera shared that technology will be implemented next alongside the SEV’s production-intent thermal management system and exterior surfaces.
This thing is pure vaporware. My new Leaf isn't.
No one is trying to take away your Leaf, though.
Let them push the envelope. Failing is a required pavestone on the road to almost every success story.
Im not saying it isn't, but fitting custom curved prob special solar panels on a test vehicle does not sound cost efficient, especially when you can test the solar panels separately perfectly fine.
Cars are complex to construct properly even without drivetrains, plenty to test there.
True, but my understanding is the amount of solar energy that hits an area the size of a car multiplies by the max possible solar energy conversion is still far below what's needed to power a car. Sure, you can continue to charge it while parked, which is cool. However, you could also put cheaper non-custom panels on a building and then plug your non-solar electric car into it to charge while parked, and the building panels will have significantly better solar exposure and be cheaper per panel.
If your goal is making something effective that reduces carbon output, an EV and solar on a building is much better. If you're creating junk to get VC funding, this is what it looks like. If this comes to market at all, it's not going to make any waves, except maybe for how impractical it is.
I suppose that the solar panels are in a field somewhere. It's much more efficient.
Lots of people here criticizing Aptera who clearly haven't researched the company or the tech.
The future of transportation everybody: a car.
that is not a car. It is a Reliant Robin meets the BORG
It's good to see that Aptera is still a possibility!
For real. I was so hopeful for the Type-1 and would've reserved one if I had the money.
The Aptera has been promised for over a decade now. I'm somehow amazed they are still trying.
Please just do trains. They can even be solar powered - a lot easier than this.
Trains are easy and they're easily electrified already. So putting solar on the trains won't have any advantage.
Rails are the difficult part of railways. They never seem to put them between my house and my work. They've put something called a road in between instead.
Kind of a different scale. $5.15 billion per mile of track for Caltrain. Aptera hasn’t even broken a billion in funding.
I note with interest that you are repeatedly posting the same cherry-picked factoid.
Average cost per mile for new track in the USA can be anywhere from $100mil/mile to over $1billion/mile for complicated projects like tunneling. This is roughly 50% higher than Europe - most likely for the simple fact that they have a larger industry for it. These are both quite high on an international scale- China builds new track for 24-48mil USD per mile.
Good, now keep the momentum up, Aptera. You're so close to the reality.
I want them to succeed. I really hope they do.
I'm excited to see them succeed. I love it when stuff is designed with function over form, and made practically. I'm a tall person, this is the only small electric vehicle I feel I could actually fit in
A solar powered car that topped at 70mph would be ideal,
But goddamn, could you imagine just having one that topped at 30 MPh in a city? Infinite travel!
If you can park on top of a parking garage, or in a spot on ground level where sunshine is not too much blocked by the surrounding buildings, you could surely commute on sunshine. Home parking barely matters for day shift workers in this scenario.
We have that already; it's called a bicycle.
