After 6 Years, Aptera Motors Is No More 173
After years of beautiful concept cars, envy-inspiring demos, and missed production targets starting in 2008, high-efficiency car startup Aptera is liquidating its assets. A pointed excerpt from Wired's account: "The truth is, Aptera always faced long odds and has been in trouble for at least two years. The audience for a sperm-shaped, three-wheeled, electric two-seater was never anything but small. It didn’t help that production of the 2e — at one point promised for October 2009 — was continually delayed as Wilbur ordered redesigns to make it more appealing to the mainstream. Aptera had a small window in which to be a first mover in the affordable EV space, and that window closed the moment the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt hit the market. At that point, Aptera teetered on the brink of irrelevance." As a compulsive driver, I had been hoping to one day drive one of these to save gas money.
Who? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I heard the name a few years ago. I just came here to point out that "an" is only to be used before words starting with a vowel, or at least a vowely sound :p You'd think an editor would have a better grasp of the English language.. :/
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Sounds like a scam to me. If you have a product, you deliver it. They didn't have a product, or at least didn't have the product they said they had., They were selling hype.
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You need to realize what happened with this company. Since I somehow inexplicably became the go-to gal for leaks, I would recommend what I've already [gas2.org] written [gas2.org] on the subject. The short of it: they *were* about to ship vehicles (I even have the vehicle integration schedule to back it up) when the board of directors forced a new CEO on them, a Detroit guy who ordered a redesign of almost everything in order to make it more mainstream.
Now that the company is dead, expect all of this and a lot more to start c
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At least they achieved something...blowing through 40 million dollars in 6 years for a vaporware product is pretty impressive.
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That's nothing. If they had some contacts in a Democratic administration, they could have blown through $500 million.
As Usual (Score:5, Insightful)
'was continually delayed as Wilbur ordered redesigns to make it more appealing to the mainstream.'
The perfect is the enemy of good enough.
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It's more than that ....
Any new car maker is going to have problems because they're trying to compete in an old business with entrenched companies.
Secondly, most folks don't give a shit about efficiency. Even after the crazy ups and downs of oil prices in the last few years, people are still buying gas guzzling vehicles [cnn.com]. So, any auto company that's going to market their product based upon efficiency will have to wait a long time and have the capital to do it and most importantly, have backers that are willi
Oil prices will never be permanently high (Score:4, Insightful)
High oil prices destroy demand, causes recession and subsequent price collapse of oil.
Anyone who is going to market a replacement vehicle for oil based ones is going to have to market it to people who cannot afford oil when it's low. i.e. it hast to be cheap. Think TATA motors Nano, but electric and with reasonable range, which is a pricing challenge.
~$100 is the new low BTW.
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That is pretty true. I gave my old 30 mpg Saturn to my mother in law, and bought a used 20 mpg Cadillac for $6000. Since I saved so much buying used, gas mileage was really not too important. I really enjoy the power and quality of the Caddy and I really would not want to go back to a lesser vehicle.
I would enjoy having better mileage, but it is not worth the premium in cost.
Re:As Usual (Score:4, Insightful)
The good enough always wins because "the perfect" is a figment of deranged and twisted egos.
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So...how shall we explain that the ego-designed iPod, iPhone, and iPad won over the "good enough" alternatives?
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You think the iPod, IPhone and iPad are perfect? (Score:2)
Fan boy?
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If you're arguing that the iPhone is perfect, you've either never used one, or never used anything else.
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The iPhone is a 'good enough' product that does a pretty incredible job of meeting the desires of the market. It's arguably the Motorola Razr of the late '00s. The fact that it was envisioned by a man with a deranged and twisted-ego doesn't mean that it's necessarily a perfect product, and I doubt that Steve would have let the desire to build something 'perfect' get in the way of his ideals for the product, or approach to delivering it.
The iPhone is a good product, wrapped up in a great UI, and one of the b
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How did that screwy antennae issue work out for you?
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what they failed while doing that apparently was to do backroom deals of getting short term money in so they could have gotten the government loan. they should have backroomed deals to get money in that would have gone straight out after the loan was in back to the people who gave it. scummy, yes? but that's how they could have gotten it and that's pretty much how it goes with these gov. investment match deals in high risk stuff.
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They failed to make sufficient political donations.
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An electric three-wheeler was never going to appeal to the mainstream, so it was a pointless exercise. If you're going to build electric cars you have to appeal to the rich hippy market.
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Because no one has ever made money by appealing to a niche market. Either you sell to the masses or not at all. Have I got that right? I would have bought one of these if he ever sold any and it wasn't too expensive.
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Which is why obviously nobody ever sells cars to niche markets, right?
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Which is why they're called "niche markets". Niche market buyers blow vastly more money on vehicles sold in quantities of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars than a merely $25k hyperefficient EV.
Re:As Usual (Score:4, Interesting)
beautiful ? (Score:1)
compare it to say an Aston Martin and it looks more like an student aircraft designers sketchbook drawing than a work of art from a car design pov,
3 wheels and a plastic body ? there is a reason 3 wheel cars have always failed in the marketplace, they look ridiculous and stability is fundamentally compromised
try making your concept cars look desirable, not like a handicapped car for able bodied people
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Amazing density of false claims.
Now, I can't call your views on aesthetics "false", mind you, but I can point out that the whole point of Aptera was that a particular persons idea of what a car "should" look like should not dictate what this vehicle looked like. They took vehicle design back to square one: "How can we carry two people and cargo using the absolute minimum of energy without compromising safety?" Everything flowed from that. If the most efficient vehicle shape to achieve that goal was a gia
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Overall terrible news IMO. I wish they wouldn't have focused on the electric aspect so much. Same body design, but with a normal internal combustion engine and a decent price, and I probably would have gotten one as a commuter vehicle (very similar concept to say a T-rex motorcycle, but without the high price). I think there is definitely a market for vehicles like this, lightweight like motorcycles, but enclosed (not always exposed to the environment like on a bike).
Snow. (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's wrong. You can drive them everywhere, even in places with winter, as long as there's no snow at the moment.
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If you don't have snow, you don't have winter. You have extended fall and early spring.
Living in the Great White North we have some extra seasons:
Winter is the longest one, starting usually in November and running through to April. Then we have Thaw, when the snow disappears, followed by Mud. Then we get Spring, when things start greening up, followed by Summer and Autumn.
Sometimes we get Monsoon between Spring and Summer.
***
I looked at the Aptera. I thought it VERY cool. It looked like it was going fa
Re:Snow. (Score:5, Informative)
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The first Typ-1 had a tremendous clearance. When they switched it to FWD from rear-wheel drive, clearance dropped in order to account for the driveshaft to the front wheels instead of the belt drive in the rear; however, it still had about the clearance of a Prius. The wheels were stock. The early Typ-1s used the Potenzas from the 1st-gen Insight, for example.
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Technically the Aptera would have been classified as a motorcycle as its a reverse tricycle, no helmet is needed because of the enclosed cabin. I've seen several reverse tricycles without enclosed cabins, driven as motorcycles not as automobiles. You could drive one 9 months a year without blinking an eye, and in reality there are only a few days a year when you'd have to drive an old beater 4X4 if you did have one.
I'd love to have one, outrageous fuel mileage and an exotic look gives it major geek appeal,
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Technically the Aptera would have been classified as a motorcycle as its a reverse tricycle
This depends on where you are. Each country is different, and each US state is different. This has been a problem in the past for three-wheeled vehicle designs; it means that (a) to drive it you must have the motorcycle endorsement on your driving license (which few people have), and (b) in some places you would still need to wear a helmet.
And as far as your Edsel comparison goes - yes, this is *just* like an Edsel. Hideously ugly with no redeeming engineering features.
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That said, in the parts of the urbanized western world where we do get snow every year, we usually remove it from the road within a few hours.
And where is this magical place where the roads are cleared within a few hours
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I live in central Alberta, about an hour outside of Edmonton.
Rural highways don't get an hourly treatment, but it is unusual to have more than 2-3 inches of snow on them. Here, 2 inches per hour is heavy snowfall.
Farm roads will generally be plowed within 24 hours if they are on a bus route, 72 hours if they are not.
Small towns generally have a grader. Depending on the town policy they may wait until the dawn of the next business day (to not pay overtime or shift differential).
Edmonton has followed a pol
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Where I live (a Eastern European country), in my city (2nd largest in the country) only the main streets are cleaned often (a couple times a day maybe), while all smaller streets are cleaned maybe once a day or less. Every time it starts snowing for the first time we hear that whatever budget that was allocated for road cleaning was already used up as it snowed much more than expected (even though it snows about the same every year). So, if it snowed during the night and is below freezing during the day, th
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Aw, you live in one of those places where half an inch is considered a lot of snow and it usually doesn't last more than a couple of days before it melts, aren't you?
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Northern Alberta. About 56 degrees north. Our halloween costumes had to be able to take -40. They'd plow the streets, the big ones pretty quickly, the little ones not so much. Salt isn't really cost effective when it's that cold, so you can't melt the snow. If you want it to go somewhere, you have to move it.
Of course, most of my friends lived down country roads the residents were responsible for plowing themselves.
You insensitive clod! (Score:2)
You insensitive clod!
He lives in a place where, if a power line is balanced at the top of a tall pole and falls off, they bury the damn thing and it never happens again.
Too bad that's not the U.S....
-- Terry
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Right. Because there's only one mode of transportation in the world -- the optimum, the car -- and nothing else, right? There's no such thing as, say, a "motorcycle", because the four-wheeled car is the epitome of transportation, right?
And people never choose inferior solutions because that's what they're used to, right? It's not like automakers constantly deliberately compromise efficiency in order to make vehicles look more like what their buyers are used to. It's not like entire lines of vehicles hav
wrong target audience (Score:4, Interesting)
This car is interesting but it was aimed at the wrong consumer. US consumer cannot afford this vehicle, because US consumer is subsidized (especially now with the Government Motors), and all the various loans, that make it too cheap for the US consumer, who can't really afford the new cars buy them with government guaranteed loans.
The company should have moved the idea to China and started there and aimed at the local Chinese market. I think they were going with a more or less correct idea in terms of the product, but they were not doing it at the right time and definitely not aiming it at the right clients.
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The Chinese use electric powered bikes. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904334,00.html [time.com]
I doubt they'd spend tens of kilobux they don't have on an electric powered trike
Re:wrong target audience (Score:4, Insightful)
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You see electric powered bikes all over New York City as well, but one thing has nothing to do with another. An electric bike isn't intended as a car replacement, whereas the Aptera is.
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I doubt anyone in China who wants a car would buy the Aptera. This is what they buy:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/01/chinas-best-selling-cars-of-2010/ [thetruthaboutcars.com]
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1909818,00.html [time.com]
As for elsewhere, who (other than car collectors like Jay Leno) would buy an Aptera? And why? If I had USD20K to spend on a vehicle I'd certainly buy something else. More range, more seating capacity.
If I was rich and was going to buy an electric vehicle just for "cool factor", I'd buy someth
I am shocked! Surprised! Horrified! (Score:2)
Who would have thought a company producing this!:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/ib/aptera-8-doors-up.jpg [popularmechanics.com]
might go out of business.....
Y'now, cars are the shape they are for a reason. Or in fact many reasons.
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If they were actually producing it they might not have gone out of business.
Also, what's wrong with the shape? Do you hate it just because it doesn't look like other cars? It looks good, like an airplane with no wings.
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I don't hate it. it's simply useless to me, and I suspect many millions upon millions of others.
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WHY is it useless to you?
Isn't getting you to work and back, and maybe the grocery store, enough for most people?
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Aptera had a waiting list of thousands of people who had not only never test-driven one before, but put $500 into a vehicle in a company that had never produced or sold anything before. If that's not "interest", what is?
Re:I am shocked! Surprised! Horrified! (Score:5, Informative)
The Aptera looks like it does for a reason - its primary goal is efficiency, which is how they got over 200 MPG.
But to do that, they had to not waste energy pushing the car through the air. So they made it aerodynamic, so it looks like an airplane rather than the traditional "box on wheels." And their initial target was a two seater, which is most efficient (because most driving is 1-2 people, and with a two seater you're pushing around less mass).
A year ago (apparently) marketplace realities kicked in. That is, while sedans are less efficient, people prefer buying them because it's useful to be able to carry more people when you need to. So the marketplace for sedans is much larger than two seaters, making it a much smarter business to be in. But since they didn't get their funding, we'll never know how that would have played out.
Though I would love to see what a truly efficient sedan might look like.
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But since they didn't get their funding, we'll never know how that would have played out.
But we do know how it played out.
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That's absolutely not true in the least. They were getting about 100Wh/mi at 55mph on flat ground. Do you realize how incredible that is for a full size non-cramped two-passenger EV with full safety, climate control, entertainment, etc systems?
At highway speeds, aerodynamic drag is the dominant energy loss mechanism. Drag is proportional to cross-sectional area (rounded body = corners cut off, and the driver in the Aptera vehicles is a bit more tilted back) and drag coefficient (which *dramatically* var
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Oh, and I forgot another major drag mechanism:
* Airflow through the engine
Obviously, an EV needs way less air intake. The Aptera models used little "nostrils" next to the headlights, and were otherwise smooth up front.
It's a toy "trike" and looks like it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Trikes are registered as motorcycles in the US in the same way as a conventional MC with a side car.
They aren't serious transportation. They are fun, but don't have the AGILITY of a two-wheeler or the STABILITY of a four-wheeler (wheels under each corner come in handy).
This isn't a blow against practical EVs, it's just one less toy. Since trikes don't have to meet crash standards, it was an understandable workaround....that's been done before....but makes it a toy.
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Who says sidecar bikes 'aren't serious transportation'? I ride my (soviet-era) Ural all year round, through all weather. Roads are often unpaved here, but that does not stop me. The distances can be substantial, but that does not stop me either. Temperature varies from around 20-25ÂC summertime to -25ÂC winter. In winter we often have up to a meter of snow on the ground.
I live in Sweden. The bike weighs 350 kg unloaded. The Red Army chased the Germans back to Berlin on (the predecessors of) these
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I'm an avid motorcyclist myself, but even a good sidehack isn't much of a hauler. Kudos for being a determined enthusiast!
"The Red Army chased the Germans back to Berlin on (the predecessors of) these things. Not serious transportation... not for you, maybe."
The "chasing" was mutual:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMZ-Ural [wikipedia.org]
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Is that a joke? The Aptera crush test results were getting over 4x the federal standard for roof crush and nearly 2x the standard for door crush. Full airbags, standard automotive glass, composite skin, sloped front-end with an internal structure designed to collapse at an angle to push the vehicle up and over in a collision, and on and on. On what grounds are you calling it unsafe?
Composite vehicles are generally the safest vehicles on the road.
I just want something to get to and from the train (Score:5, Insightful)
Another one bites the dust...
Is there anything out there yet that is
- reasonably inexpensive
- short-mid range capable (long range not required, i have a regular car if needed)
- charges on house current (prefer all-electric)
- reasonably road safe
- can still keep me reasonably warm in winter (cool in summer a plus, but not as important)
- has a radio
-some cargo/passenger room would be nice to have since the grocery stores are only a few miles away
- Doesn't really need to top 45mph, I'm thinking train commute (back-roads, grocery run, maybe occasional kid pickup from school)
Appearance is not a major consideration.
Really what I need seems to be in a sweet spot between CEV and general use passenger car. Is there such a thing out there? Am I missing something? Economics still seem to point to cheap gas vehicles (which is vaguely annoying).
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Find yourself a cheap econobox gasser and convert it to electric. I have a soft spot for 1st generation Saturns since they're light and reasonably resistant to rust. It's not THAT expensive to do (US$10K in parts plus your labor) since the original car is practically free.
http://www.phoenixeaa.com/photoalbum/streetevs/suiter1/main.html [phoenixeaa.com]
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Sounds like you want to slightly mod a GEM.
They're very cheap.
Adding rigid doors will cost just a bit more.
Up to 4-seats, plus a small "trunk".
For heat, one of these [harborfreight.com] might do.
Street legal on roads up to 35MPH.
Top-speed of 25MPH is easily fixed. (no longer street-legal)
Died in 2008 with the hiring of Paul Wilbur (Score:5, Insightful)
He ousted two of the originals and was a old school car guy, it was no wonder that nothing that had been created before he arrived would ever satisfy him, nor much of any chance innovation was going to stick.
Aptera vs Solyndra (Score:4, Interesting)
House Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been holding hearings [politico.com] on the corruption he accuses Obama having when Federal loan guarantees were given to Solyndra, the large solar startup that went out of business this year. Issa has also been busy denying his own work using his own power to try to get the same loan guarantees for Aptera, which is in his own district. Now Aptera has also failed. Will Issa investigate himself for corruption? [factcheck.org]
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* I am a US citzen and I vote. Unfortunately in regard to American politics, there is no choice only a lack of options.
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Re:Aptera vs Solyndra (Score:5, Informative)
Solyndra's investors weren't particularly Obama donors - the Waltons (i.e. Walmart) were major investors, and they're hardly Obama fans. Keep in mind also that Solyndra was started and was fast-tracked for funding under a DOE program started under Bush, and Obama's [ep[;e actually slowed things down, did more due diligence, and put more protections in place around the loans that ended up saving us money by pulling the plug on the company. Despite Issa's partisan spinning, this isn't something to blame Obama on - any time the government sets up a fund to promote businesses, some of those businesses will succeed and some will fail, and Solyndra failed because China radically dropped the price of solar cells, wiping out Solyndra's market. The real problem isn't that the US government set up a fund to encourage solar development, it's that the US started years later than China, and with a much lower level of investment, so China is beating us. The answer isn't to give up, it's to compete harder.
Re:Aptera vs Solyndra (Score:5, Informative)
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As to point one, yes that is true, but it was NOT after the loan was rewritten to put the investors ahead of repaying the government loan in bankruptcy. One of the reasons that it is true is because they did
The problem... (Score:5, Insightful)
If your wierd car costs $20K-$40K then I can tell you without a doubt that you will fail instantly.
Wierd and efficient cars need to target the sub $9000 price point for a econo 2 seater. There are a metric buttload more buyers at that price point than the more likely $40K per car point that it would have ended up at.
Chevy understood this as well as Nissan. They are producing incredibly few Volts and Leafs because they know there is no market for an economy car at $40K. the economics of the cars do not make any sense to anyone, and the only buyers will be "look at me I'm green! LOOK AT ME!!!!!" people who have a lot of money for a toy. If the chevy volt looked 100% identical to a $15,000 car it would have sold nothing at all because there is no "LOOK AT ME!!1!1!" factor.
Honda Civic new is $16,000. Chevy Sonic is $15,000 Both get 40mpg. If your car costs MORE than that you are set up for Instant-FAIL. Even if it was to get 60mpg. In reality a new, never heard of company needs to be way,way, under that to get sales because nobody wants to "risk" getting stuck with a poorly built or defective car from a unknown car company.
Re:The problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're new to building cars, you can't go for cheap. You can't compete with mass-produced cars on price and you don't have the capital to set up mass production. If the manual labor required for assembling your car makes it 10k more expensive than a comparable car of a big company, your best hope is to produce cars for a market segment where the uniqueness of your model is worth the additional cost to enough customers.
That's why most small car companies produce super sports cars. It doesn't matter if they cost 210k instead of 200k. But selling a small car for 25k when the competing product costs 15k just doesn't work. Tesla was smart to start with the Roadster. Now they have the means to go after a bigger market with the Sedan.
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That's the OP's point - the Aptera is too expensive for the economy segment, and too underperforming/oddly styled for the (more well heeled) 'green fetish/stylish' market. Or, in other words, at it's price point the Aptera is a solution in search of a
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If the chevy volt looked 100% identical to a $15,000 car it would have sold nothing at all because there is no "LOOK AT ME!!1!1!" factor.
I don't know, the Volt [thecarconnection.com] and the Civic [readywheels.com] look pretty similar to me.
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Really? People don't spend big bucks on unusual, niche cars? What world are you living in? There's a whole industry out there, ranging from the Big Three to little garage shops, that exists specifically to sell low-volume, unusual, high-cost cars to enthusiasts who love them specifically for their differences.
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BTW why doesn't electric street motorcycles get more attention?
Motorcycle riders can't figure out how to take the baffles out, so they'll never catch on.
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The 3rd generation Prius gets 51 mpg highway. Of course, that's EPA estimates. Hypermilers get more, many everyday people probably get less.
Not everyone buys a hybrid (or any other car) JUST to make up the difference in price. What if we just want to use less/NO gas? (BTW, I currently drive a gas powered car as sole occupant, but unless my car dies unexpectedly and I need a new one NOW, my next car will be at _worst_ a Prius, and hopefully a full electric.)
Why don't you use your same argument against a
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Using less gas _will_ make a difference.. it will put less pollution (including carbon dioxide) in the air, and make it last longer for the vehicles that absolutely need it (e.g. airplanes).
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I mean fossil fuels in general. I realize planes don't use the same fuel that cars do.
Break out the rose colored glasses.. (Score:1)
Being in business for 6 years, building a working prototype, and getting $40 million in funding is a relative success.
Great job Aptera, hopefully everyone involved finds new work.
It's difficult (Score:3)
Building a concept car is relatively easy. Making a limited production run of expensive one-offs is also pretty easy. Mass producing a car affordable for the general market at a profit is *insanely* difficult. Basically, your quality has to be near-perfect, because one recall to fix a defective CV joint or door latch will blow your profit margin out of the water. So will rising commodity prices. So will rising labor prices. So will changing regulations. So will dozens of factors you probably haven't even thought about.
Tar sands and pipelines forever (Score:2)
Obviously, this is further proof that that electric cars will never work and that all any alternative to burning gasoline for transportation is nothing but a liberal boondoggle and there's no such thing as climate change.
In the event that we ever run out of fossil fuels, we can just squeeze my cousin Randy. He's the greasiest guy I have ever met. Pores the size of nickels.
New car companies in the west are being done wrong (Score:2)
Very disappointed (Score:4, Interesting)
On the street (Score:2)
I live in Carlsbad, CA, where one of their facilities is, I've seen them (or maybe just one) driving down El Camino now and then. Looks like a disembodied small aircraft fuselage. Seems utterly un-crash-worthy. Very pretty, not very practical.
I remember when (last year) they were turned down for government assistance, because they had three wheels not four; wondered why they didn't just drag a bicycle wheel so they'd qualify.
Hoping to go by their offices next week and see if there's any evidence of gettin
so much hate (Score:4, Interesting)
What's with all the hate for the Aptera? Did the owner rape your sister or something? I can't believe so many of you are getting so worked up about hating this guy and his company and his car. I smell some kind of agenda, although I can't imagine what it could possibly be. Maybe you guys work for companies that make those pathetic hybrids that barely get more than 50 mpg? It was a concept car that never made it off the ground. It could have been any small automotive startup. The fact that it was a car that looked like an airplane and got much higher gas mileage than anything else on the road in North America is not why they failed. Even for major manufacturers, most concept cars never see the light of day. I would have bought an Aptera if they could have sold it for less than 30k. It was strikingly beautiful and had an incredibly low coefficient of drag. I think it would have been one of the best cars ever made.
For now I will continue to salivate over Volkswagen's efforts with the XL1 [dailymail.co.uk]. Although I much prefered the former, more radical, tandem 2 seater L1 [ecogeek.org] A real jetson-mobile.
WTF? (Score:3)
Sperm shaped? WTF? It looks like a small aircraft without the wings -- there was so much hate for something truly different.
I'm hoping they open source the designs or enough leaks out so somebody can put out a kit car or something. I'd bite.
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You have no idea what a "concept car" is. Pretty much none of them ever see the light of day (there are a few rare exceptions). They are mostly just expensive PR for car companies, with the occasional practical benefit of having some compelling elements that get put into other (production) vehicles.
Then again, they had a neat looking prototype with no business model and
this sort of thing (Score:2)
Dont't click the link (Score:2)
Don't click the link in the parent post. I think someone didn't like deep linking.
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You are an idiot and a disgusting pig. Who ever reads this post Do Not Click on the link. Its a variation of goatse and way beyond NSFW). God I wish you could be banned for pulling crap like that.
Please mod this pig down to the basement.
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goatse alert. (Score:2, Informative)
Goatse alert.
This is just the latest Corbin Sparrow, and the sparrow failed. This failed again. Whee!
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Of course, there are very efficient, small diesel offerings in Europe, but somehow "diesel" has become a cuss word in the states.
In Europe, diesel is subsidized, so it costs less than gasoline. In the US, it's the opposite. Combined with the existing higher demand for petrol than diesel, diesel ends up costing more than gasoline. How much it actually uses is of less impact than the fact that Joe and Jane Redneck sees a higher price per gallon for diesel than for regular or even premium gasoline.
Add to that that the cost of the car itself is higher; so much so that it would take the better part of a decade to make up for the price
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I drove a Beetle TDI as my daily commuter in Atlanta for a number of years. I averaged 47 mpg and drove 30,000 miles per year.
The average driving distance per year in the US is around 13,500 miles. So The average driver would not save $938 per year. Following the same figures, it would take around 6 years for the average driver to make up for the engine premium.
Which, incidentally is the same as the average car ownership length. I.e. the owners would not save anything, but be out extra money up front.
So it differs depending on how much you drive, and how you drive too.
Re: (Score:2)
I fear your obsession is turning malignant.
Re: (Score:2)
Clearly you weren't a customer, so how is this "idiots who don't talk to customers"?
Aptera had a huge waiting list. Demand was not the problem.