BEHIND the BRANDS
Cars powered by gas, known as combustion vehicles, have a lot of moving parts, including injectors and crank shafts. All that movement causes gas-powered vehicles to instantly lose a quarter of the energy from their fuel. Aptera’s mission is to strip down motors to the essentials, cutting weight and maximizing aerodynamics. Their designs are more than a decade in the making. The business launched as Aptera Motors, Inc. in 2010. But it had trouble getting off the ground after a failed attempt to secure seed funding from the US Department of Energy initiative that helped jumpstart Tesla. The fate of electric vehicles is much brighter now. The federal government recently relaunched that program, making billions of dollars available in direct loans under Congress’ Inflation Reduction Act. Aptera submitted another application and raised over $90 million via a crowdfunding campaign. More than 45,000 people put $100 down to reserve an Aptera, Anthony says. The launch edition’s price starts at $33,200. Because costs go up depending on battery size and solar application, the total worth of Aptera’s pre- ordered cars is over $1.5 billion. The company hopes to produce its first vehicles by late 2024, depending on when it hits its funding milestones.
The car’s efficient design also streamlines the assembly process. Aptera’s one-room Carlsbad microfactory doesn’t look large enough to manufacture whole automobiles at first blush. A large blue line along the floor winds through the building, tracing the track each car will take down an automated assembly line powered by robots. The plan is to launch more microfactories wherever the highest density of orders are coming from. Each microfactory will be able to produce 40 Apteras per day. The car’s six main components, including its carbon fiber body (which comes from CPC Group in Modena, Italy, a main manufacturer of supercars and motorcycles), arrive pre-assembled, so it’s just a matter of fusing them together, a process that takes less than two hours. The company’s launch model is a two-seater with a ton of leg room. The motors are stored in the wheels. The car looks small in photos— and, to be honest, in real life, as well—but it’s about as long as a Prius and an inch wider than a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Potential customers frequently ask Anthony whether the car is safe, a standard query for any new vehicle on the market. He reminds them that Aptera is using the same cage as a Formula 1 car, which is designed to race at speeds well over 150 miles per hour. The vehicle has airbags, safety belts, all the traditional fixings of a regular car, Anthony says. “But you can’t buy a car under half a million that has this type of carbon fiber technology,” he adds. Back in Vegas, a simple extension cord and a wall outlet are enough to plug in your car so it can recharge while you explore the Strip. (Though it will be supercharger-compatible, in case you want to hit the road again more quickly.) Or, just park it and let the sun do the work.
[APTERA’S] SOLAR- POWERED SKIN DRAWS CONSTANTLY TOP OFF THE BATTERY AS YOU DRIVE. ON THE SUN TO
75 SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE
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