Aptera Solar Car: Aptera is teasing a new clean interior of for the latest prototype of its solar electric car with up to 1,000 miles of range. A lot of people get into electric vehicles for their efficiency, and there’s nothing more efficient than Aptera’s solar electric vehicle (SEV). Thanks to an extremely lightweight, three-wheel design and a drag coefficient (Cd) of only 0.13, the Aptera SEV can achieve 250 miles of range on a fairly small battery pack and 1,000 miles with bigger battery packs.

Aptera Solar Electric Cars

Aptera was an established electric car maker which never had much success with their early plans, but has roared back with a new attempt and with a new design it’s taking orders for. The vehicle claims to be crazy-efficient and that’s important. More of a gimmick is that it can come covered with solar panels with the idea this makes it “never charge.” It probably doesn’t, and in fact putting solar panels on the car is not at all a green thing to do.

Let’s start with the good. The sleek and aerodynamic 3-wheel design results in an Aptera claim that the vehicle uses only 100 watt-hours to travel a mile. Compare that with the already very efficient TeslaTSLA -2.4% Model 3 which takes 250, or larger electric vehicles that can take 300 and even 400 watt-hours to go that far. That’s astonishing efficiency and will be an incredible achievement, though it comes with some compromises.

With that efficiency, it means the car would have incredible range on the same batteries put in regular EV sedans. The Aptera claims 250 miles on the sort of small battery found in an older Leaf, and a version that can go almost 1,000 miles on a charge with the a 100kwh battery as might be found in a Tesla model X. That’s actually a wasteful amount of range, since nobody is likely drive more than 600 miles a day without tiring, though it opens the potential for road trips in remote locations not otherwise suitable for EVs. That much battery has another purpose we’ll talk about below.

Aptera Solar Car Specifications

Price	$25,900-$46,000
Motors	2 or 3 x 67-hp/295-lb-ft permanent-magnet-type wheel-mounted electric
Transmission	1-Speed Auto
Length	172 Inch
Width	88 Inch
Height	57 Inch
Wheelbase	108 Inch
Cargo	25 cubics. ft.
Curb Weight	1,800-2,200 lb (mft)
Acceleration	All wheel drive @ 150 kW 100 kWh as quick as 3.5 sec
	Front-wheel drive @ 100 kW Top Speed as quick as 5.5 sec
Speed (0-60 mph)	5.5 Sec

While solar on electric vehicles has been limited to countering vampire drain or adding just a few miles of range, Aptera’s electric car is so efficient that, by fitting up to 700 watts of solar power, you can add up to 40 miles of range per day by just parking it outside – add a starting price of just $25,000, and it’s enough to create a lot of hype.

These specs have attracted a lot of attention; the company has managed to get over 22,000 reservations for the vehicle. Aptera asks for a $100 deposit (or $70 if you use a referral code) to reserve the solar electric car.

It shows a very clean and minimalist interior, reminiscent of Tesla’s Model 3/Y interior. It features both an instrument cluster screen and a center display.

Aptera has to both work with the limitation of the size of the vehicle, which is certainly smaller in order to achieve the kind of efficiency it is aiming for, and also the liberty that comes with not being classified as a car but as a motorcycle or auto-cycle depending on the jurisdiction.

The company is expected to fully unveil its gamma prototype later this week, and it is aiming to bring its solar electric vehicle to production by the end of the year.

Inwheels Engines

The rebuild Aptera moves the electric drive to the hubs, freeing up space on board and allowing torque to be vectored. Small 50 kW (67 hp) Elaphe wheel motors must not overload the suspension with unsprung masses.

Be standard and would provide 060 mph acceleration time in the 5.5-second range, with an option to power the third rear wheel and reduce that time to 3.5 seconds.

The one thing that has never changed in Aptera in its transition to a solar-powered electric car is its extremely light and extremely robust passenger cell made up of just four composite parts.

The fully assembled “body in white” weighs less than 800 pounds. Three-wheeled vehicles are considered motorcycles and closed three-wheeled vehicles avoid the need for helmets and motorcycle driving licenses, but Aptera swears it will meet all 700 safety requirements in the event of a traffic accident.

To this end, there is sufficient energy absorption in the front and side beams in the doors, but the high door sills and the extreme curvature of the body side in multiple directions are believed to help push Aptera back when ‘he was struck by another vehicle.

And the windproof teardrop shape with fully keeled wheels is now believed to achieve a drag coefficient of 0.13.

Auto Cooling

To bypass the drag of a traditional grille, and fan cooling system, Aptera claims to have developed a method to build microfluidic channels into the composite resin skin that makes up the bottom and sides of the car to radiant heat like the skin of an animal.

This is how the battery, motors, and solar panels are cooled. How such a system can be integrated into a cabin air conditioning system is another question.

We have serious doubts about the effectiveness of a pure heat pump air conditioning system that uses skin radiation, so there may be a condenser and a fan for the air conditioning system.

More Efficient compared to other EV’s

Ultra-light body, ultra-slim aerodynamics, and tires with very low rolling resistance help make the solar-powered Aptera electric car four times more efficient than typical electric sedans and earn around 16 miles per kWh.

Think of every customer who chooses the 100 kWh battery with solar panel, except perhaps those planning marathon tours through the vast, dark expanses of Nunavut, Canada, or Siberia.

But if that’s your problem, then you should check out Aptera’s hatch-mountable tent. Opening and restraint net for pets.

The roof panel solar module will come standard on all models and is said to be capable of providing 20 miles per day of solar charge in sunny climates such as southern California.

Covering the hood and hatch with solar panels increases the total area of the solar panels to around 3 m, which, with a current efficiency of 24 percent, means that they capture 700 watts of energy. This adds $ 900 to the price and increases the daily solar range to 43 miles.

That’s more than the average commuter traffic, and that’s how Aptera realizes that commuters (at least where it’s usually sunny) can “never load” their car.

Simplified and Distributed Manufacturing

Aptera has selected Munro and Associates of Sandy Munro to apply its lean design methodology, which will cause Aptera to outsource the majority of the vehicle. The final assembly involves assembling six main assemblies into the composite body: front and rear suspension modules (including motors), instrument panel, battery, and interior.

Retail will be completely online, and CEO Chris Anthony dreams of one-day meeting local demand with small local assembly facilities close enough to the customer to enable the factory to pick up to solve a thorny problem: transporting Vehicles on three-wheelers.

Maintenance

With minimal maintenance required for any electric vehicle, Anthony said his company adheres to the right to repair movement. This involves manufacturers disclosing all repair and maintenance procedures online to enable owners to repair and repair their vehicles.

Aptera will ship parts to customers worldwide. There would be a warranty program to fix things, presumably at an established network of auto service centers.

Aptera solar car comes with 3 range options,

A whopping 1000 Miles range with 100kWh battery (Paradigm Plus Model)

600 Miles range with 60kWh battery

400,250 Miles range with 40 and 25 kWh batteries respectively

And when it comes to harvesting solar power Aptera outperforms all others in the industry,

Never Charge Solar array in ~3 square meters/ 700 watts.

The car self-charges up to 60 kM while simply being parked.

Solar can be added to Aptera’s hood and Rear Hatch for up to 24 miles of additional free solar charging per day

The initial versions will be named Paradigm and Paradigm+, though it’s unclear whether this is the name of the car or just the trim levels. There’s an interesting model with higher ground clearance, harder wheel fairings, and an integrated tent and awning, demonstrating that the Overlanding obsession has reached every part of the transportation realm.

The “never charge” solar panel

With all the great specs above, Aptera promotes even more their solar charging feature. Every car comes with a basic panel that’s roughly 300 watts on the roof. For $900 you can add panels to the hood and rear to raise it to 700 watts. Aptera promotes that in this full configuration, you can gain “up to 48 miles/day” of range with solar charging, or about 10,000 miles/year in San Francisco or 7,500/year in a place like Boston. Since the average driver only goes about 12,000/year in a new car,

many drivers, they suggest, could get all their miles from the sun and have a fully solar powered car they never have to plug in. Many potential buyers find that very appealing.

Production to begin in 2022

Anthony freely admits that global supply chain issues related to COVID have delayed production, but said the company is testing its “beta” prototypes and appears to be on track to finalize the production plan of Aptera Electric Car this year and enter production in 2022, working to fill an order book of 12,000 pre-orders.

The Compromises

To get that level of efficiency and range, you’ll have to give up a startling number of things. The car is compact and light and believes it will pass all crash testings. That’s fantastic, but in a collision with a larger vehicle,

some factors will put passengers in a light car at a disadvantage.

And when it comes to solar charging,

These are ideal statistics, assuming the car is constantly parked in the sun and never drives long distances.

It is always better to install solar panels on your house

or in a solar farm than it is to put them on your car in terms of decreasing emissions.

Conclusion

Hope we have covered all the aspects of the upcoming Aptera solar car and the promises the team shares. But as we have discussed in our solar cars,

there are several pitfalls in making a car entirely run by solar energy.

Aptera has a handful of obstacles to get success,

• The design yet promising and futuristic still has to gain confidence when it comes to safety and reliability.
• Convincing the government body to approve the funding.
• Gain confidence from the people

Few EV pioneers like Elon Musk believe that it is absurd to put solar panels into a vehicle. But who knows? for many people, his ideas were absurd in the beginning.

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