Chris Anthony, co-founder and co-CEO of Aptera, glides his hand along the side of one of the company’s electric vehicles at the carmaker’s 80,000-square-foot assembly location in a nondescript office park in Carlsbad.
“We want it to feel like a normal vehicle,” Anthony says.
But the vehicle — called Aptera — certainly doesn’t look normal. First of all, it has just three wheels — two in the front and one in the back.
The car’s aerodynamics bring back memories of JFK-era, New Frontier designs and all their futuristic, Jetsons optimism. The sleekness is not just for show but for purpose — Aptera markets itself as the most fuel-efficient vehicle on the planet.
And look closely. Along the hood, the rear hatch, the dashboard and roof, the Aptera is layered with photovoltaic solar s, rising ever so slightly in a diamond-shaped pattern.
“Our common denominator will always be solar mobility and solar-powered and efficient vehicles,” said Sarah Hardwick, Aptera’s chief marketing officer.
An EV … with solar
Like a conventional EV, the Aptera can be plugged into a standard 110-volt or 220-volt outlet. It’s also compatible for DC Fast Charge, including at select Tesla fast-charging stations.
The aerodynamic shape dramatically reduces drag and the Aptera’s weight (about 2,000 pounds) is about one-third that of a typical EV, resulting in the car going longer distances. The all-wheel drive Launch Edition has a range of 400 miles and if customers add bigger lithium-ion battery packs, Aptera officials boast the vehicle is able to go as far as 1,000 miles on a single charge.
The Aptera is about as wide as a Tesla Model S and about as long as a Prius, but it looks longer because of its stretched-out design that curves up in the middle.
Its 700 watts of continuous charging power features another layer of efficiency — the Aptera can run on solar power.
When the car is outside and the sun is out, the ’s solar energy trickles into the battery pack, allowing the vehicle to run on sunshine.
“The s are at different angles,” Anthony said. “You can get up to 4.4 kilowatt-hours of power production out of those and the vehicle uses less than 100 watt-hours per mile. So that gets you about 44 miles a day of solar charge range.”
Even with the battery at zero and no electric charge coming into the vehicle, Anthony said if the Aptera sits outside on a sunny day for about 8.5 hours, the vehicle can hit that 44-mile range, running strictly on solar.
Aptera officials hope to roll out their first vehicles next year from the company’s assembly location in Carlsbad. The Launch Edition with all-wheel drive will cost about $35,000.
“If you’re driving 12,000, 14,000 miles a year on a gas-guzzling vehicle that gets 25 to 30 miles per gallon, you’re paying $7,500 or $8,000 a year in fuel,” Anthony said. “If you could get into something like this for $35,000, your payback is enormous because you’re not spending that yearly fuel cost.”
The three-wheel design enhances the car’s fuel efficiency (a fourth wheel would add more weight and drag to the vehicle) and allows the company to get into production faster than if the car had four wheels. By having three wheels, the Aptera is in the same classification and certification process as motorcycles and three-wheeled autocycles.
“For us, it’s just a much easier way to get into the marketplace,” Anthony said. “It’s less expensive … versus building a four-wheeler that has to go through all the crazy loopholes.”
Potential hurdles
Will customers take to a three-wheeler?
Anthony acknowledges that “for some people, three wheels? No, I don’t want any part of it.” But the Aptera’s “handling characteristics are about what a VW Golf is,” he said. “We’d love to blindfold people and give them test drives before they even knew it was a three-wheeler because we feel — and most of the responses we get — say it feels just like any other four-wheel vehicle.”
The Aptera is billed to go from zero to 60 mph in under 4 seconds.
But what kind of market is there for a car with just two seats?
Back in 2019, Mercedes Benz stopped selling the two-seat all-electric Smart car in North America because of poor sales. Similarly, Toyota pulled its tiny car, the Scion IQ, off the market in 2015 after U.S. customers didn’t take to it.
“The entire industry has gone away from the idea of two doors and two seats in general,” said Ivan Drury, senior manager of auto insights at Edmunds.com. “Many vehicles are four doors minimum and four seats, if not five. Everybody wants an SUV. They even want compact SUVs with three-row seating.”
Anthony said “two-enger vehicles are definitely something that can fit a lot of people’s lifestyles,” especially as a commuter car. Without having rear seats, the car has 32.5 cubic feet of storage in the back, which Anthony says is 70 percent more than the Toyota Corolla.
“We have 42,000 orders for this thing now,” Anthony said. “So there’s at least 42,000 people that say yes … If people are buying into this vision for solar mobility, they’re buying in because it looks cool, it’s the greatest tech, the most efficient, it’s best for the planet. It kind of ticks all these boxes.”
Customers can make deposits for as little as $100 to reserve a spot. Reservations have come from customers in 112 countries, representing $1.5 billion in potential revenue.
However, since the Aptera does not have four wheels, it would not qualify for existing federal clean vehicle subsidies, which include up to $7,500 in tax credits.
Since the Aptera is not on the streets yet, it is not listed among the vehicles that qualify for California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project. Zero-emission motorcycles and the three-wheeled Arciomoto and the ElectraMeccanica Solo currently qualify for $750 rebates.
Starting over … and looking ahead
Aptera has had some financial hiccups.
The company was founded in 2005 and persuaded about 4,000 people to put down $500 deposits to purchase new Aptera vehicles, but by the end of 2011, the company folded before any cars were produced. The company refunded all the deposits.
The company came back in March 2019, re-formed as Aptera Motors Corp. with Anthony and Steve Fambro coming back as co-founders and co-CEOs.
“We had kind of a false start 10 years ago,” Anthony said. “We raised a bit of money but the electric vehicle industry, in general, was very nascent. The supply chain wasn’t there.”
Earlier this year, Aptera received a $21.9 million grant from the California Energy Commission through a program encouraging clean technologies in the state. The grant works on a reimbursement basis.
“It’s technically a 60-40 match,” Anthony said. “We spend 60 percent of the money and they match 40 percent. So if we go out and spend $100,000 on something, then they’ll write us a check for $40,000 back.”
Since Aptera’s restart, the company has raised about $90 million (some $70 million through crowdfunding and $20 million from private and venture capital).
But to start manufacturing vehicles and putting them on the road at scale, Aptera needs about $50 million more.
Company executives are seeking financing for equipment, applying to the U.S. Department of Energy for a loan and looking for other investors to bridge the gap.
“If somebody handed us a check today,” Anthony said, Aptera deliveries could come to customers by the first half of 2024. “If it takes us six months to raise that $50 million, then the end of 2024.”
But with a closure in its rearview mirror and a less-than-definitive date for mass production, why would an investor and a customer take a financial leap of faith on Aptera?
“I think most of our fans would say they like the tenacity of founders that were able to recapture their company and bring it back,” Anthony said, “and bring back so many good people that helped with the original launch.”
Auto analyst Drury called Aptera “a noble mission” that may be “good in theory,” but thinks the company has an uphill battle in front of it.
While 42,000 customer deposits may be a healthy figure, new vehicle sales for 2023 are estimated to come to 15 million units, Drury said. “So if they think that maybe they’re competing against four-wheel traditional vehicles, we’re talking about a slice of a slice of a slice of this large pie.”
Drury also wondered whether Aptera’s solar component would find much traction in states outside of the Sun Belt. “You’re going to be looking at less than 20 percent of the market overall, right off the bat,” he said. “This isn’t going to be meant for a snow state or a place with hills because with hills, we know batteries drain faster.”
Aptera officials counter that according to their calculations using National Renewable Energy Laboratory data, even places like Seattle or Ireland can average about 8,000 miles of solar-powered driving per year.
Hardwick, Aptera’s marketing director, said the target audience is simply, “Anyone who wants an efficient vehicle.”
In addition to efficiency and cutting-edge technology, Anthony said the Aptera’s price point will be attractive to customers.
“The average EV today costs over $58,000 and the average gasoline vehicle averages about $48,000,” Anthony said. “So we feel if we can come in at $35,000 for a 400-plus-mile vehicle with lots of features, we’ll stand up really well.”
Aptera currently has 62 in-house employees and 30 contractors. It plans to have 150 full-time employees when the company starts putting cars on the road.
