Aptera Takes First 300-Mile Highway Trip in Solar-Powered EV (aptera.us) 93
"I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years," says Aptera co-CEO Steve Fambro. Aptera's solar-powered electric car just drove 300 miles on a single charge.
"We're one step closer to a future where every journey is powered by the sun," Aptera says in their announcement.
"This go around, Aptera took to the highway for the first time ever..." writes the EV blog Electrek. "At one point, Aptera's video noted that its solar EV was pulling over 545 watts of solar input, even though it was overcast."
"Less time searching for chargers," Aptera says in their announcement, adding that their "production-intent" car proved "that a solar EV isn't just a concept for the future, but a real-world solution ready for the present" — while turning Route 66 into "a test bed for a vehicle built to thrive independently..." "The panoramic windshield gives you this incredible view of the landscape," Steve said [in a video accompanying the announcement], describing the drive. "It's like a big picture window into the future."
The final stretch took the team back into California, where they reflected on the journey, the data, and the excited reactions from drivers who caught a glimpse of the vehicle on the road. "Almost everyone we passed had their phones out filming us," Steve laughed. "It's clear that Aptera's design stops traffic — without needing to stop for a charge."
"I was struck by how normal this trip seemed, except for all the gawking from fellow travelers," writes long-time Slashdot reader AirHog. "Best of luck to Aptera to reach their funding and production goals this year for this remarkable vehicle."
They drove on highways to Lake Havasu, and then to California's Imperial Valley — starting in Flagstaff, Arizona on symbolic Route 66. It was 100 years ago that Route 66 was proposed to link Chicago and Los Angeles, which Fambro credits to a visionary who believed in "something bigger than the road itself — believing in what it could unlock for the world." "And they did it. Route 66 became one of the most iconic highways in America, proving that what once seemed improbable could become inevitable.
"I think about that alot with Aptera. We're building something people say can't be done. History shows us the boldest ideas, the ones that challenge that status quo are the ones that truly change the world.
They take their futuristic, tear-dropped shaped "Jetsons" car to a drive-through wildlife refuge named Bearizona. They stop at a general store for some beef jerky. "We're just having a fun time seeing all the sights."
"I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years," says Aptera co-CEO Steve Fambro. "Driving in the most efficient vehicle on the road. Watching the sights go by. I got emotional just taking it all in." "This company. This idea. It's real. It's visceral. And I'm just so proud of each and every person who helped make this dream a reality.
"We have the chance to make a real change in how the world moves. The road hasn't been easy. It's been painful, difficult. And it's brought me to my breaking point sometimes. But being in this moment right now? I can say it's all been worth it...
"I feel we're at the forefront of something truly revolutionary. We're not fighting an uphill battle any more. We're standing at the edge of something incredible. Ready to break through.
"To all of you who supported us, my commitment is this. We're not stopping. We're moving forward with more energy and more passion than ever. The road ahead is an open highway. And the future is ours to shape."
To celebrate Aptera is holding a giveaway for a camping kit, a $100 gift card to their online store, and a free Aptera pre-order to a winner chosen at random from those who subscribe/watch/comment on their new video...
"We're one step closer to a future where every journey is powered by the sun," Aptera says in their announcement.
"This go around, Aptera took to the highway for the first time ever..." writes the EV blog Electrek. "At one point, Aptera's video noted that its solar EV was pulling over 545 watts of solar input, even though it was overcast."
"Less time searching for chargers," Aptera says in their announcement, adding that their "production-intent" car proved "that a solar EV isn't just a concept for the future, but a real-world solution ready for the present" — while turning Route 66 into "a test bed for a vehicle built to thrive independently..." "The panoramic windshield gives you this incredible view of the landscape," Steve said [in a video accompanying the announcement], describing the drive. "It's like a big picture window into the future."
The final stretch took the team back into California, where they reflected on the journey, the data, and the excited reactions from drivers who caught a glimpse of the vehicle on the road. "Almost everyone we passed had their phones out filming us," Steve laughed. "It's clear that Aptera's design stops traffic — without needing to stop for a charge."
"I was struck by how normal this trip seemed, except for all the gawking from fellow travelers," writes long-time Slashdot reader AirHog. "Best of luck to Aptera to reach their funding and production goals this year for this remarkable vehicle."
They drove on highways to Lake Havasu, and then to California's Imperial Valley — starting in Flagstaff, Arizona on symbolic Route 66. It was 100 years ago that Route 66 was proposed to link Chicago and Los Angeles, which Fambro credits to a visionary who believed in "something bigger than the road itself — believing in what it could unlock for the world." "And they did it. Route 66 became one of the most iconic highways in America, proving that what once seemed improbable could become inevitable.
"I think about that alot with Aptera. We're building something people say can't be done. History shows us the boldest ideas, the ones that challenge that status quo are the ones that truly change the world.
They take their futuristic, tear-dropped shaped "Jetsons" car to a drive-through wildlife refuge named Bearizona. They stop at a general store for some beef jerky. "We're just having a fun time seeing all the sights."
"I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years," says Aptera co-CEO Steve Fambro. "Driving in the most efficient vehicle on the road. Watching the sights go by. I got emotional just taking it all in." "This company. This idea. It's real. It's visceral. And I'm just so proud of each and every person who helped make this dream a reality.
"We have the chance to make a real change in how the world moves. The road hasn't been easy. It's been painful, difficult. And it's brought me to my breaking point sometimes. But being in this moment right now? I can say it's all been worth it...
"I feel we're at the forefront of something truly revolutionary. We're not fighting an uphill battle any more. We're standing at the edge of something incredible. Ready to break through.
"To all of you who supported us, my commitment is this. We're not stopping. We're moving forward with more energy and more passion than ever. The road ahead is an open highway. And the future is ours to shape."
To celebrate Aptera is holding a giveaway for a camping kit, a $100 gift card to their online store, and a free Aptera pre-order to a winner chosen at random from those who subscribe/watch/comment on their new video...
Well, one large step for a company, one small step (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I guess that's one large step for a company, one small step for mankind.
Other EV companies have managed to make 400 mile ranged EVs with full functionality, such as being able to keep the occupants alive through a 100mph crash, with a trunk, frunk, and all that.
On the other hand, being able to make an EV from more or less scratch capable of highway speeds is not a trivial achievement.
I still think that solar panels are best used to make a "solar carport", rather than mounting directly on the car. You just don't get enough solar energy even at 100% efficiency to run anything other than a bicycle with a solar shell at any appreciable speed.
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If you put solar panels everywhere you could (including the top of the dash) on a typically-sized sedan, you should be able to get about 20 miles worth of charge out of it in 4 hours of sun in a lot of places (that's a decent minimum estimate for pretty much all but very overcast days). That's more than half the miles the average American drives per day. If this new automotive solar paint pans out, it may become become completely standard for pretty much all EVs. So, even when you're not running the car on
Re:Well, one large step for a company, one small s (Score:4, Insightful)
I believe Aptera folks are predicting 30-40 miles per day of added range if left in the sun (thanks to the vehicle's predicted efficiency). Since for many people that covers their daily commuting needs, some buyers might almost never need to plug in for a charge.
Re: Well, one large step for a company, one small (Score:3)
So 30-40 miles range after 12 hours in the sun?
Wow.
The 120v Tesla portable charger can do that on a common wall outlet... how much do these solar panels add to the cost of the car? Wouldn't that money be better spent simply putting a bigger battery in the EV?
Re: Well, one large step for a company, one small (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on your particular needs. This could basically eliminate plugging in at all for people whose daily driving is only about half of the average. Or it could provide a range extension on a long trip. Or allow for things like using up most of your range to go on, for example, a camping trip for a week and the car charging up while parked. Worth it for some. Like I said, if that solar paint works out (and provided it's not prohibitively expensive), this might become standard for EVs. At the very least, I would not mind having it.
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This could basically eliminate plugging in at all for people whose daily driving is only about half of the average.
Except it won't.
1) The short time driving would accumulate zero meaningful charge. So this could only really be about parking.
2) You would have to park it OUTSIDE. So much for the security, safety, and convenience of a garage.
3) You would have to park it in direct sun all the time. And that assumes you have any, considering trees, shadows, etc.
4) It ignores weather, cloud cover, etc.
5) You w
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If this article is to be believed, they were getting 5 miles per an hour without direct sun (last I looked they were saying 10 miles per kwh).
That seems to make 30-40 miles/day fairly realistic.
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1) The short time driving would accumulate zero meaningful charge. So this could only really be about parking.
Obviously I don't mean for cars left in the shade and, presumably, anyone with a garage would be smart enough to have solar panels on the garage for charging. Also, of course this would work while driving at the right time of the day, which would presumably be almost inevitabl"e on long trips. Also note the "could basically" in the original sentence, which was meant to give the understanding that there certainly would be situations where this didn't happen, but the exercise of when not was up to the reader
Re: Well, one large step for a company, one small (Score:4)
The car is carbon fiber.
The PV panels are user replaceable! Not 1 whole monolithic unit either. They are hardened patented PV panels.
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I think you might have responded to the wrong comment.
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lol. it was modded up and noticed more where I put it...
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1) it's all about being in the sun. most the time cars are not moving.
2) ONLY launch edition requires full solar. 1st edition has the option to skip most the solar which was about $900 and I'd have skipped it and just bought a few more roof PV for my garage instead. but then I don't want to wait years longer for that option. I figured the cost was not worth the electricity.
3) instead of hunting for shade to park your car and the bird droppings... you now look for the more plentiful open sky
4) it generates a
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The amount that a few solar panels could actually do for electric car, especially one of normal size/weight/performance, is pretty laughable.
Yep. It's not like electricity is all that expensive. Or that energy in general is all that expensive. I know people will complain about gasoline prices but it's still something like 50 bucks in fuel round trip to visit my sister in another state. That's not nothing but hardly bank breaking. What does this solar powered car cost? How would that compare to the typical BEV, PHEV, or ICEV? Could I expect to come out ahead on total cost of ownership versus a more conventional vehicle?
This Aptera car appe
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Worth it for some. Like I said, if that solar paint works out (and provided it's not prohibitively expensive), this might become standard for EVs. At the very least, I would not mind having it.
I'm having trouble seeing the worth given that for much of my life I parked my vehicle in a garage at home and a parking ramp for much of the day. For people living in urban areas I suspect this to fairly typical, meaning the vehicle would see daylight only while driving. I've lived in rural and suburban areas also where there's trees, tall buildings, and so on often shading parking spaces for at least half the day, and certainly gravel roads that would cover vehicles in dust. I've lived in places that g
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I'm having trouble seeing the worth given that for much of my life I parked my vehicle in a garage at home and a parking ramp for much of the day. For people living in urban areas I suspect this to fairly typical, meaning the vehicle would see daylight only while driving. I've lived in rural and suburban areas also where there's trees, tall buildings, and so on often shading parking spaces for at least half the day, and certainly gravel roads that would cover vehicles in dust. I've lived in places that get snow for many months of the year, how well would solar panels work when covered in two inches of snow on a cloudy day?
The point is more about where they would work. I mean, obviously the value would depend on the actual cost, just like with everything, but I see this as adding an extra useful feature to the vehicle, such as a little extra range some of the time, charging in remote locations such as while camping, etc. It would not replace plugging it in and charging the battery, etc. but there's a balance between the car being absolutely stripped down to the barest features or having all the accessories.
I doubt this will become standard equipment on EVs. What I expect to be at least common, though not exactly standard, on EVs is a small diesel or gasoline engine to provide extra range and power for long trips, colder weather, the once-in-a-decade extended power outage, and so on. I've seen adverts on TV where car makers make a big deal out of how a PHEV can run on all electric power for a daily commute while not leaving people stranded at an EV charger for long periods because it can burn gasoline for motive power.
Personally, I'm not
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The point is more about where they would work. I mean, obviously the value would depend on the actual cost, just like with everything, but I see this as adding an extra useful feature to the vehicle, such as a little extra range some of the time, charging in remote locations such as while camping, etc. It would not replace plugging it in and charging the battery, etc. but there's a balance between the car being absolutely stripped down to the barest features or having all the accessories.
Do the math on how much energy can be gained from sunlight and how that relates to actual driving ranged gained per hour/day/whatever. This might be a good place to start your math: https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]
If we assume solar PV on a car gets as much power as solar PV parks then that is only 5 watts per square meter. Siri tells me a typical parking space is about 18 square meters. If we assume a solar powered car is covered completely in solar panels and fits in a common parking space then we get
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Do the math on how much energy can be gained from sunlight and how that relates to actual driving ranged gained per hour/day/whatever. This might be a good place to start your math: https://web.archive.org/web/20 [archive.org]... [archive.org]
Oh dear god, not this again. Do you ever get new material? And do you have to drag it out for every discussion? I mean, it's really old. Look at the numbers for "concentrating solar power" versus Solar PV parks. 5 Watts per square meter? Going by real power plants, that's off by a factor of at least 2 to 3. Plus that chart is all about the practicality of solar power for countries, nothing to do with supplementary power for cars. Also, even there, basically every country is well within their line for solar
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And do you have to drag it out for every discussion? I mean, it's really old.
I know the chart is old. I also know the chart is correct. The amount of power available from the sun hasn't changed in any meaningful way in the last few decades. We are still working with a best case of 250 watts per square meter of sunlight out in some desert, and a vehicle that needs to fit in a parking space that is about 3 meters wide and 6 meters deep. My calculator tells me that's about 4500 watts to start with, consider 20% efficiency for any kind of PV cells we could expect to buy without some
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I know the chart is old. I also know the chart is correct. The amount of power available from the sun hasn't changed in any meaningful way in the last few decades.
As usual, you're ignoring actual reality in favor of your old charts that you have not bothered to find revised data for in years and years. Bizarre. You're also either deliberately skirting the point, or not really understanding. This has nothing to do with the amount of power available from the sun. It has to do with how much of that power various kinds of installations manage to usefully extract, and solar plants can provably extract more than the chart claims. Whether Mackay's numbers were incorrect low
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But if you put the solar panels on your house instead of the car, it will be cheaper, and you can use the power for other things when the car doesn't need it.
I have an EV and panels on my roof. I never use the power from the panels to charge my EV. It makes more sense to feed the solar power into the grid during the day (when electricity is expensive) and charge my EV from the grid at night (when electricity is cheap).
The only advantage I can see for putting the panels on the vehicle is if you're stranded i
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The last time this article ran, I had ChatGPT do the math on how much it would cost to buy some solar panels from Harbor Freight to get the equivalent amount of free driving for my Bolt. Might as well keep the tradition alive:
You would need about 23 solar panels to generate enough energy to match Aptera’s claimed 40 miles of solar charging per day. The total cost for these panels would be approximately $2,742.63
Yuck. $2.7k to save $1.60 worth of electricity per day. Yep, that's why I haven't done t
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Harbor Freight panels aren't the cheapest per watt though. You'd want to go to an actual solar company.
That's why I'm like "solar carport". Get a carport AND tax deductibility along with the power.
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Harbor Freight panels aren't the cheapest per watt though.
Looking at solar kits on eBay, it doesn't seem like their pricing is that far off for 2.3kW worth of panels. It's really everything else that ends up breaking the bank when it comes to this, and at least in my area if you're not hiring an actual contractor the utility won't let you grid-tie. That really throws a monkey wrench into the budget when you can't use the grid as a big free battery.
Re: Well, one large step for a company, one small (Score:4, Insightful)
If your $2.7k cost was all-in, it would offset $584/year of electricity. That's a 4.6 year payback period, which IMO is perfectly fine. After which you would have free charging for your car.
You didn't post enough information about what the cost entailed, panel size, etc. There are just a tons of variables. I can tell you in find it extremely worthwhile to have 70 panels on the roof of our mansion, totaling 23.2 kW, especially at PG&E rates on NEM2. And one of the cars we drive is a 2017 Bolt. The other is a 2015 Volt. We put our first panels up in 2010 and expanded over time. First EV was a leased 2012 Leaf which was a big mistake.
We have spent far more than $2.7k on solar over the last 15 years, but it offsets about $8k per year, so it still makes a ton of sense.
Re: ok, but (Score:2)
I drive my car to work daily. Where it sits outside in the parking area all day every day.
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Yes but you gain a slight amount from the ceiling lights. probably enough to counter the lithium self-discharge rate.
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So, even when you're not running the car on it and reducing the weight, etc. like the Aptera, solar power for cars does start to look worth it.
If you figure something like a Tesla Model 3 getting 4 miles per kWh and the national average of 16 cents per kWh, those 20 miles cost a whopping eighty cents. Is it really worth the cost and complexity (don't forget about collision repairs) to cover a car in solar panels to save such a tiny amount of money?
There's kind of an argument to be made for solar in cases where people truly have no charging infrastructure available, but in cases where all you need is 20 miles of range per day, even a basic 120v ex
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If you figure something like a Tesla Model 3 getting 4 miles per kWh and the national average of 16 cents per kWh, those 20 miles cost a whopping eighty cents. Is it really worth the cost and complexity (don't forget about collision repairs) to cover a car in solar panels to save such a tiny amount of money?
Well, if we assume a ten year life on the car, it's about $3000, so it depends on the cost for covering the car and unknown factors like fluctuations in the price of electricity, inflation,etc. From my perspective the boost in average range (since you can partially charge while driving some of the time), the ability to charge in remote locations (like if you go camping for a week) might make it worth it for me. In other words, I am interested in the increased capabilities more than just saving money. Also,
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Battery and charging technology will incrementally improve and be more than good enough before (for some it already is th
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This has all of the same problems as solar roads. Put the panels where they're most efficient instead of on a car where only a percentage will be getting an appreciable amount of sunlight at a time. If they panels are on the roof of a car park they're less likely to be damaged, easier to keep clean (and operating at peak efficiency), and where many of these cars will be parked anyways.
I'm not assuming a zero sum game here where you can somehow only charge the car from the panels. Of course you would also want them on the roof of car parking structures, garages, houses, etc. I'm seeing this as a useful extra feature like heated seats or a trailer hitch or something. Basically something I would like to have because it provides some range extension and convenience.
Battery and charging technology will incrementally improve and be more than good enough before (for some it already is there) some magic technology pans out.
Solar charging in cars is a magic technology? It already exists. It's not a universal option yet, but it definitely exists.
I can already see the number of people going through a car wash every day to keep their car with solar paint clean enough for it to be efficient and save them the trouble of having to plug it in.
I mea
Re: Well, one large step for a company, one small (Score:1, Flamebait)
I don't understand the announcement:
They started with an electric vehicle, OK.
The EV had a battery.
The battery was charged before the trip started.
They were able to drive 300 miles without stopping to charge the vehicle.
So?
If they drove 60 MPH, that's five hours of driving. According to their best numbers they got about 500 watts ( 0.5 KWhr) per hour from the solar panels, five hours at 1/2 KWh adds what, 2 1/2 KWh over the battery capacity?
Sounds like they are excited about adding about 10 miles range to t
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Sounds like they are excited about adding about 10 miles range to their 290 mile range battery... is that really a big deal?
Solar has had the same problem for a very long time now. You need a whole honkin' lot of panels to generate meaningful amounts of energy, and that takes up a proportionally large amount of space. It goes without saying, there's not much of that on the top of a car. Every once in awhile though, someone comes along and dazzles investors with some slight of hand and makes 'em believe that if you wish hard enough, the laws of physics will give you a free pass.
It's like that old joke about the hardest part ab
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They were able to drive 300 miles without stopping to charge the vehicle.
So?
They hadn't been able to do that before.
That's why I called it a large step for the company, a small one for mankind.
Other companies have figured out how to build hundreds of thousands of EVs all capable of 300+ miles trips.
This particular company building a 3 wheeler capable of doing it is new. But there's a lot of issues with said vehicle, to the point that honestly, a Model 3 or similar would be better for like 99% of people.
I wish them luck, they're going to need it. I personally don't think that the
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But there's a lot of issues with said vehicle, to the point that honestly, a Model 3 or similar would be better for like 99% of people.
If a certain electric car company's CEO wasn't otherwise too occupied with tasks that should be left to our actual elected officials, he could steal a bit of Aptera's thunder by running a promotion where you get some free solar panels for your home with the purchase of a Tesla.
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They were able to drive 300 miles without stopping to charge the vehicle.
So?
It's at least 300 miles from a 40kWh battery on real American highways, which is pretty nice. Many other EVs get less range with batteries twice as large. The solar power is just icing on top. For some people, they would not need to ever plug one in because their daily commute is less than the solar gain. That was obviously never going to be the case for long distance travel.
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being able to make an EV from more or less scratch capable of highway speeds is not a trivial achievement.
You can accomplish that by building an electric go-kart. 70 MPH is not even hard. The challenge, as you pointed out, is making one that can meet all the challenges of a modern vehicle. Most people expect a certain level of comfort and safety that these simply do not offer. Also, I've kind of harped on this but, it's terrible to have three wheels. Besides the pothole dodging problem, they are very bad dynamically if any of the three go flat, and they are very bad in wet conditions.
I still think that solar panels are best used to make a "solar carport", rather than mounting directly on the car.
Yes, covering parking space
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"I feel we're at the forefront of something truly revolutionary"
Solar power was just discovered yesterday.
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nobody is required to keep you alive at 100mph. us gov was like 30mph. anything else is extra. also, it's assumed people hit breaks so impact speed is lower
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I'd still rather be in a car that i'm likely to survive a 100 mph crash in, because a 30mph crash is then likely to not even be all that damaging.
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On the other hand, being able to make an EV from more or less scratch capable of highway speeds is not a trivial achievement.
I believe it fairly trivial today since we've seen electric cars being built for over a century now. More like two centuries if you dig deep enough into history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Rechargeable batteries and electric motors on a car are hardly new. It is hardly difficult. I've seen people build electric vehicles from scratch as a hobby. A moderately motivated and moderately funded high school student could do this on their own in a year or two, assuming access to off the shelf car parts.
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From what I remember, 30% is a better figure for rooftop solar panels today.
The Battery to Battery idea is probably going to be around 90% efficient.
Also, don't forget grid connections. Solar carport can still be hooked up to building power, for flexibility. I figure that if solar really takes off, charging during the day, at work, will become more common.
As for the solar carports, add in that vehicles that regularly shelter under them will last longer and use less energy.
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From what I remember, 30% is a better figure for rooftop solar panels today.
Do you have a source for that? I took a quick web search on that and after scrolling beyond the paid results I found this: https://www.cleanenergyreviews... [cleanenergyreviews.info]
It looks to me that 20% for rooftop solar isn't far off. I'll give you 25% by assuming brand new top-of-the-line rooftop solar but not 30%. If you can show better then I'd be interested to take a look.
The Battery to Battery idea is probably going to be around 90% efficient.
I'll make no argument on that point but I'm still sticking to my point earlier that if the goal is transportation using energy with low cost and low en
I don't like the design (Score:2)
I really really want them to be successful, because a solar powered car with mileage like that is beyond amazing. BUT I can't5 make myself like the design. It's like a chick with a great personality that you wish you were attracted to, but can't be. I mean, I get it .. aerodynamics is key to making it possible, but I dont like the wheel being separate from the main chassis ..the control arm and tie rod linked in a housing looks fucked .. like what if it hits a pedestrian even at low speed? And what is the s
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The estimated Cd is supposed to be in the 0.13 to 0.15 range, better than any other production vehicle. The enclosed wheels are supposed to be a significant contributing factor, according to this article: https://electrek.co/2023/07/12... [electrek.co]
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I can say the same thing about the Cybertruck (dear God is that thing ugly), but looks are subjective. The thing I don't get about this car is what does it really bring to the table? Is it going to be a lot cheaper than other EVs on the market? Probably not. Does the extra efficiency really matter? Well, to answer that, on Aptera's site they claim the solar charging will let you do 40 miles of driving totally for free. Sounds neat, until I did the math and found out that charging at home, that's about
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Hm,, you could probably cover your Chevy Bolt with ultra thin flexible film solar panel and get a few miles of charge per day.
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Is it going to be a lot cheaper than other EVs on the market? [...] Does the extra efficiency really matter?
Well, the Aptera will have a 42kW battery and they can go 300 miles. Since that's probably about half the battery capacity of your typical Tesla, and batteries are the most expensive part of an EV, you can see where this is going.
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Well, the Aptera will have a 42kW battery and they can go 300 miles. Since that's probably about half the battery capacity of your typical Tesla, and batteries are the most expensive part of an EV, you can see where this is going.
Whether that actually results in a cheaper car ultimately hinges on whether they want to make a cheaper EV, or just a higher profit margin EV. If simply having a 40-ish kWh battery = cheap EV, the base Nissan Leaf would be a whole lot cheaper. Although to be fair, it's probably a bad comparison because Nissan should be giving those damn things away for still having an air-cooled battery and CHAdeMO in 2025. It'd be pretty tough for another EV manufacturer to be that tone deaf.
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It is supposed to get 400miles and has a Tesla fast charge and given the battery size it should charge really quickly. If you don't waste energy, you do not need a large batter that is slower to charge.
The Nissan leaf has not had CHAdeMO for a while. the batteries are still not cooled. but they are reverse engineered and better 3rd party ones are available with cooling and increased range and less than half the price of Nissan.
Re: I don't like the design (Score:2)
It's BS - the car started with 275+ miles charge in the battery before they started driving, and their solar panels, generating (at best) 500 watts/hr) added 25ish miles to the range of the EV.
The car didn't 'generate' enough power to operate the car for 300 miles based solely on solar electricity.
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Oh, hmm well 20 to 25 miles a day isn't too bad .. I'll assume in less than average conditions it would still get at least 10 miles .. even that's not too bad. If you live off grid, and don't have home solar panels, that could probably get you into the nearest small town and back once or twice a week.
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>"Oh, hmm well 20 to 25 miles a day isn't too bad"
It wouldn't be too bad, except in this example, it assumes you are driving 300 miles a day. If you are driving 15 miles, it is less than 1 mile of added range. And that is under *ideal* conditions, which rarely exist. As for parking- I covered that in a different post, above.
Re: (Score:2)
I like *cars*. Not SUV's. Not trucks. Not vans. Not "crossovers." And if you are in the market for *cars*, good luck. Each year they are disappearing more and more and, pretty soon, all we will be able to buy are huge, tall, heavy, energy-gobbling beasts. Infiniti just dropped their last remaining car model. Now all SUV. Ford dropped all its cars except the mustang. Everything else are SUV's and trucks/vans (18 models?). Acura is down to just 2 cars out of 6 models. If you are looking for a *car*
Re: I don't like the design (Score:2)
waste of time and money on the solar panel gimmick (Score:3)
They had to curve the panels to the body shape, wire them in and get that wired into the battery to put charge into it. The weight alone probably negates the added range.
They really need to get off the gimmick train and start showing how they produce those in quantity and at a profit. And to heck with the 400 mile range goal, get something together with 300+ miles of range and get it on the road in numbers. It's already a pretty small battery so it should charge rather quickly.
LoB
Re: (Score:2)
Even that 2 seater is only going to get a few miles of added range after many hours of sitting in the sun so it's just not worth the effort.
Depends on your use case. Firstly they say under ideal conditions it's 10% of the total vehicle range per day or 40 miles. That's half of an average American commute, and a full commute in most other countries.
But it's also not 2010 anymore. For many people the use case isn't a commute. It's been 6 days since I last drove my car. My car would be on a full charge by now if this were the case, instead I need to go plug it in at a public charging station and pay 45c/kWh for electricity tomorrow (or at least so
From the linked-to website (Score:2)
Aptera just completed its first-ever solar-supported road tripâ"driving over 300 miles on a single charge and proving that a solar EV isnâ(TM)t just a concept for the future, but a real-world solution ready for the present.
Aptera just completed its first-ever solar-supported road trip
"Solar supported" - not "exclusively solar-powered"
driving over 300 miles on a single charge
Charge? Oh, wait - they had a fully-charged battery pack, and their 500 watt/hr solar cells 'boosted' the range a handful of miles.
and proving that a solar EV isnâ(TM)t just a concept for the future, but a real-world solution ready for the present.
EVs have been a real-world solution for YEARS, by adding solar panels to your 3-wheeled motorcycle you extended its range by 10% - something any EV Mfg could accomplish by simply adding 10% more battery capacity to their non-solar EVs.
Such a nothing burger!
The problem with hyper-efficient vehicles (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People (myself included) ride motorcycles. Yes, we even commute on them. If we stop thinking of the Aptera as an electric car and instead start thinking of it as an enclosed 3-wheeled electric motorbike it suddenly makes a lot more sense and becomes a lot more attractive.
Re: The problem with hyper-efficient vehicles (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It is the largest carbon fiber single-part ever made. It's primarily a top/bottom shell of carbon fiber. It's not weak and the front is a metal crumple zone. given that government standards are only 30mph survival I think it'll pass. will it exceed that? don't know but i would think it might tend to bounce off more than crush given it's shape. more like a smartcar had a rigid body and light weight that would move the whole car and the crush was just for survival purposes (sudden G forces.)
Many trucks and S
I hope they make it, still dubious. (Score:5, Informative)
Disclaimer: I am an "EV enthusiast". I currently own another electric trike, an Arcimoto FUV. I also own a Rivian R1T electric pickup and a Ford Mach-E.
I've had a deposit in for an Aptera for years, and I'm one of the "small investors" who has stock in them.
At this point, I'm assuming that my deposit and my investment won't ever produce anything for me.
I hope they succeed, even if I wasn't an investor and deposit-holder. The idea may be kind of silly, and absolutely not for everyone (neither are motorcycles.) But they're always begging for more money to actually start production, and always failing to raise as much as they say they need.
At this point, I imagine the first few dozen vehicles will be delivered to the "high value investors", but that true large-scale production won't happen.
On the technical front - yes, the solar panels are largely a gimmick. Maybe if you always park outside in somewhere terminally sunny like SoCal, Arizona, or Florida, it might make it so that you never have to plug it in; but in most areas, it will make a small dent on your charging needs. The big "selling point" is the extreme efficiency. There are a few ways to measure EV efficiency. The EPA uses "Miles Per Gallon equivalent" or MPGe to rate EVs. By their measure, the most efficient vehicle is the Lucid Air Pure, at 146 MPGe. My Rivian is rated at 73 MPGe.
Most EVs measure efficiency in either "miles per kWh" (one gallon of gasoline contains 33.7 kWh of energy, so an easy conversion is to take this number and multiply by 33.7 to get the "MPGe") or "Watt-hours per mile" (inverted, so a lower number is better, this is similar to what many metric countries use for gas vehicles - liters per 100 km where a lower number is better.) That Lucid Air Pure gets about 4.3 miles per kWh of energy, or about 230 Wh/mi.
Aptera claims 10 miles/kWh / 100 Wh/mi. That is more than double the efficiency of the most efficient "full size" vehicle. My Arcimoto FUV, a similar "two seater three wheel EV" gets about 5 mi/kWh in mixed city/non-interstate-highway driving. The Arcimoto is great for city driving, and while it is absolutely capable of highway driving, it isn't very aerodynamic so its efficiency drops like a brick on the freeway. The Aptera _IS_ aerodynamic, so should be much more efficient on the highway.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, having PV panels is just a gimmick. Because we've had solar powered EVs for years - just that the solar panels were located in more static locations, their power used to charge the battery of the EV.
Of course, that being a given, they could just get rid of the PV cells on the vehicle and eliminate the weight and cost of all the support equipment as well, which should improve the efficiency numbers even more.
But I guess the only way to make news is to have a gimmick, so here we are.
This is the future! If you... (Score:2)
The rest of us would rather have a normal EV and solar panels on our house.
But it's not car buyers they have to fool, it's investors, and they seem to be succeeding.
power the car's HVAC system, that's a plus ! (Score:2)
Jokes on you (Score:2)
Note the start and end elevation (Score:2)
This trip was largely downhill, they're trying to boost the range numbers.
Re: (Score:2)
This trip was largely downhill, they're trying to boost the range numbers.
Starting in Flagstaff and ending in a valley should have been obvious. LOL
my observations (Score:2)
First thing is I am very surprised they could get over 500 watts of power in on that amount of solar. I would not have expected more than 300, given the area. I've got enough technical knowledge with solar that I have to seriously question their claim of over 500 watts charging, without for example having to deploy some additional panels at a rest stop.
Second, we saw the vehicle making several turns, (all from the front) and I never saw turn signals. I did see what looked like brake lights that could do
Re: (Score:2)
Well, first of all think of it as an electric enclosed motorbike, not a car. Then a whole lot of it makes a lot more sense. I too am a bit dubious of their 500 watts of solar power, but there have been some interesting developments in panel tech recently that they could be using that could make it feasible. The proof is in the pudding so to speak.
It almost certainly has turn signals. I don't think that's a question as adding them is cheap, easy and with LED highly efficient.
The side mirrors do seem small, a
Re: (Score:3)
A use case (Score:2)
Living in a city. No charge port, garage, or own parking spot. Driving less than 200 miles a week. Never have to plug in.
No one is talking about the coolest thing about Ap (Score:2)
It uses OpenPilot under the hood for a true hands free self driving ADAS without any subscriptions or road restrictions. The future is here
Re: (Score:2)
Aptera is OpenPilot ready. It won't come with it but it will be capable for anybody to add later OpenPilot at any point!
You can pre-order it but they won't say if that will delay your order to bundle it or if you get the car and later get the OpenPilot in the mail.
OpenPilot is an evolving product that for some things already out performs Tesla. When it upgrades again (and it will) you can either upgrade your device or replace it with a newer device. Unlike everybody else where you must buy a whole new car
I'd love to see... (Score:2)
Focus on the efficiency (Score:1)
For a (near) production 2-person vehicle, it has several notable accomplishments. Hats off to the engineering team.
* Record(?) Coefficient of Drag of 0.15
* 10 miles / kWh efficiency, a dramatic increase from the current EV efficiency leaders (in the US, at least)
* Self-powered for 30-40 miles per day
I think the onboard solar panels are compelling since they can power the average commute without plugging in. Not everyone has convenient access to a charger, so this opens up a new market of EV buyers.
It will
I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years (Score:2)
"I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years," says Aptera co-CEO Steve Fambro
LOL that's when he started charging it.
OMG they literally drove down hill! LOL (Score:2)
"They drove on highways to Lake Havasu, and then to California's Imperial Valley — starting in Flagstaff, Arizona on symbolic Route 66"
Flagstaff elevation - 6821 '
Lake Havasu elevation - 735 '
Imperial valley elevation - 235 feet below sea level
LOL
Aptera: how much can i squeeze around legislation (Score:2)
I want to see Aptera succeed as a company. The car itself only exists because it was the cheapest way to make a roadgoing electric vehicle given the burden of laws that have accumulated over the past 150 years. The choice to use three wheels was not because three wheels is better. Itâ(TM)s because it creates a convenient way to throw away a bunch of legislatively mandated burden that comes when you use four (or more) wheels.
The company is basically building about as cheap and minimalistic a highway-leg
Waste of time investor scam (Score:1)