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Aptera, the startup aiming to make a three-wheeled electric vehicle, just got $4 million in funding.
That brings it closer to actual production, slated for the end of 2021.
The ultra-efficient three-wheeled two-seater promises 1000 miles of range.
Electric-trike maker Aptera finally has what it needs to really get going: money. Last week the company announced it had closed on $4 million in Series A funding. “Aptera’s continued momentum has now garnered it over 7000 vehicle reservations in just over two months, totaling a quarter-billion in orders,” the company’s news section read.

Aptera Claims Its Solar EV Never Needs Charging

Aptera Wants to Build a 1000-Mile-Range EV

2010 Aptera 2e

It goes on to say Aptera has moved into a new production design facility in the tony Sorrento Valley area of San Diego, just east of La Jolla. (Aside: Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla and would probably have approved of the Aptera’s shape.)
The shape, like everything on the vehicle, is squeezed for efficiency. It has a ludicrous 0.15 coefficient of drag and a curb weight of just 1800 pounds. Depending on what battery you order and how much sun the rooftop panels can add to your drive, you could get 1000 miles of range out of this thing. If you live in a really, really sunny spot, you can gain over 41 miles a day in free electricity from the solar panels, or 11,484 extra free-sun-happy miles a day. If you live in, say, New York, you can still make between 11 and 30 miles a day. Most people don’t actually drive that far in a typical day, so for them, it’s basically free fuel forever.
Prices are still listed at between $25,900 and $46,900 for the high-efficiency two-seater, with the first deliveries planned for the end of this year. The company wants to hit 10,000 vehicles a year by 2022.
Below is a recent Aptera story with more details:
Anybody remember the Aptera 2e? The three-wheeled two-seater that looked like a flying pumpkin seed? Well it’s back, or it will be back, and the stats of the new model that its makers are throwing around sound crazy: a curb weight as low as 1800 pounds, range of up to 1000 miles(!), priced starting at $25,900.
Incredible, right?
Let’s back up a bit, like about 14 years. In 2006 when the company was more or less founded, it was going to revolutionize transportation through efficiency. Three wheels instead of four allowed for the wild aerodynamic shape you see here, as well as skirting federal safety standards. Three-wheelers are generally classified as motorcycles by NHTSA, but if they’re enclosed like this one, you usually don’t have to wear a helmet.
An electric motor drove the rear wheel on that original model and produced an mpg equivalent of 200 miles per gallon. Pricing back then was going to be between $25,000 and $45,000. In 2008 it was entered in the Automotive X Prize contest with a claim of 300 mpg equivalent. Original plans called for a plug-in-hybrid version utilizing a 500-cc catalyst-equipped gasoline engine. The PHEV would compliment the battery electric models in the lineup.
All too soon, however, the money ran out, and a reported dispute (about whether the car should have roll-down windows, of all things) doomed production. The company closed its doors in 2011, not having delivered a single car to a customer.

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Original founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony.
Aptera

However, the original founders, Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, never gave up. They are shown now posed with an Aptera, ready for the future.
The new car will be electric only, with a variety of battery packs available. The bigger the pack, the longer the range. Consider this: 25 kWh good for 250 miles of range; 40 kWh for 400 miles; 60 kWh for 600 miles; and the king-daddy 1000.0-kWh battery will give a promised—and unprecedented—1000 miles of range. That works out to 10 miles per kWh, by the way. Contemporary EVs are closer to 4 miles per kWh. So the pumpkin shape means two and a half times more range? That’s what they’re saying.
But the most interesting statistic may be the power of the solar roof. Most previous applications of solar roofs on electric or hybrid cars say they’re only good for a few hundred watts of power. Some carmakers say they’re only good to operate an exhaust fan to keep the car’s interior cooler on hot days. But Aptera says its roof options—up to three solar panels—can give you 60 miles of range. That’s unprecedented statistic number two. The maximum panel size is three square meters, which yields a claimed 700 watts of charge as long as the sun is shining. Say you live in South Miami and get 10 hours of direct, glaring sunlight a day—700 watts times 10 hours is 7.0 kWh. If this rig really does get 10 miles per kWh, that’d be good for 70 miles. Aptera is only claiming 60 miles, though it expresses that as 60 kilometers plus 24 miles. In the main press release it claims 45 miles. An earlier release, still on its website, said the solar roof would be good for 40 miles. Take your pick. Co-CEO Chris Anthony tries to explain:
“If you put our same solar package on a Prius, you could get maybe six or eight miles of charge range a day, which some people might find compelling, if you have a really short commute. For most people, it wouldn’t be worth the expense of the solar. But when you only burn 100 watt-hours per mile, like the Aptera does, the same solar package can get you 40-plus miles a day of range.”

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Aptera

The trick is getting that 100 watt-hours, which, with the craft’s shape and light weight, seems entirely plausible. The company sums it all up with a statement:
“Aptera Motors today announced it has introduced the first solar electric vehicle (sEV) that requires no charging for most daily use and boasts a range of up to 1000 miles per full charge, shattering industry performance achievements to date. Aptera leverages breakthroughs in lightweight structures, low-drag aerodynamics and cooling, material science, and manufacturing processes to deliver the most efficient vehicle ever made available to consumers.”
The body is made of lightweight composites that are said to meet “all applicable safety standards.” Keep in mind that the standards applicable to a three-wheeler are nowhere near as stringent as those required of a four-wheeled, generic “car.” That’s okay. People ride motorcycles, don’t they?
That slippery exterior is said to have a drag coefficient of 0.13, which looks entirely possible. Power goes to all three wheels via hub motors in each wheel. Autonomous driving is said to be on the list of features, though no specifics were proferred.
Will it really happen this time? Deliveries are slated for “2021,” which gives them a little elbow room should there be yet another dispute about roll-down windows, or maybe cupholders. But it sure looks cool. The slice of electric car enthusiasts who program their own software will likely love this thing. As for the rest of the planet, well, who doesn’t want 1000 miles of range and free solar charging?

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Automakers tend to delay announcing recalls until they can “hide in the herd” of other recalls, lessening the attention paid to their recall and the negative impact on their stock price, a recent study suggests.
The study found that 73 percent of recalls are announced in clusters, suggesting that there is a pattern to recall announcements, rather than recalls being randomly called.
The study authors recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) require automakers to promptly disclose the date they first became aware of a problem.
Rather than announce recalls as soon as they surface, automakers wait until they can blend into a crowd of other recalls, an academic study suggests. This “clustering” of recalls reduces the attention paid to a given recall, and that lessens the negative impact on the stock price, because the automaker that initiates a cluster of recalls is the one that gets the most attention.

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The study, “Hiding in the Herd: The Product Recall Clustering Phenomenon,” examined 3117 automotive recalls over 48 years from 1966 to 2013, finding that 73 percent of recalls were announced in clusters. The recall clusters lasted for 34 days on average, and during those periods, an average of 7.6 recalls were announced. The “leading” automaker that prompted a cluster experienced a 67 percent larger penalty in stock price than other automakers that announced recalls shortly thereafter, according to the study.
“I think that this study has raised awareness of something that previously was not recognized both in academia as well as in industry, that there [is] this temporal clustering of recalls,” said Jason Miller, an associate professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University and an author of the paper. “The general public doesn’t realize that it is often not clear cut on whether [automakers] should have announced a recall or not.”
The study examined the six automakers with stock publicly traded in the United States: Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. Of those automakers, only up to 9 percent of their recalls were leading recalls. Toyota was the exception, with recalls that were much more random. Leading recalls made up 31 percent of Toyota’s total recalls, which, Miller said, suggests that Toyota may have acted as a trigger for other automakers, given the Japanese automaker’s reputation as a leader in quality. “Unfortunately, we cannot observe what’s going on in the decision makers’ heads. We only have the archival data,” Miller said. “But that mechanism would make sense.”
The researchers ascribed the penalty for the leading recaller to attribution theory, which in this context says that the more unique a recall appears relative to competitors, “the greater the market attribution of blame to the firm and the larger the stock market penalty.” Uniqueness comes from being the first to announce a recall in a cluster, or being the leading recall.
The recalls which follow, or the recalls in the cluster, appear to be less unique since they can blend into the crowd. If there is a larger period between clusters, the leading recaller is penalized further since its perceived uniqueness increases. Given the differing stock market penalties for leading or following recalls, the research suggests that the markets judge a recall more on its timing than the actual severity of the recall.
The researchers recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) require automakers to promptly disclose the date when they became aware of a problem to discourage automakers from holding on to recalls until they can be released in a cluster. This is how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handles recalls.
NHTSA, when asked for comment, said, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviews all recall reports for possible concerns, including timeliness concerns, and follows up with the manufacturer for additional information, where needed.”

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Million-mile warranties exist at dealerships all over the United States, but they are offered by the dealer, not—like traditional new-car warranties—by manufacturers.
If you want to reap the rewards, you’ll have to meticulously follow the service schedule and save your records.
Most people won’t keep their cars long enough to really take advantage of these warranties, which do not transfer to a second owner.
If you’re in the market for a new car, you may have come across a dealership advertising a million-mile warranty—and perhaps it was even offered for free. That may sound like a great deal, but it’s not necessarily a good reason to give your business to one dealership instead of another that’s not offering a super-extended warranty. The value of a million-mile warranty will depend entirely on your lifestyle, your plans for your new car, and how good you are at following rules.

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Many dealers that offer these warranties provide them for free on every new car that rolls off the lot. But that’s not the only warranty your car will come with. Every new car sold in the United States has a factory-backed warranty that will cover repairs due to mechanical failures (so, not those necessitated by accidents or expected wear). These warranties vary by manufacturer, but the powertrain coverage tends to cover at least the first five years or 60,000 miles of your car’s life, and sometimes a lot more. By the time the original warranty runs out, plenty of owners are ready to sell or trade in their vehicle for something new. Million-mile warranties don’t transfer to the next owner, so you’ll be on to your next car and the dealer won’t have had to pay a dime for their extended warranty.

Barnett Auto/Bear Lake, MN

Freedom Chevrolet /Fremont, MI

In the extremely unlikely event that you’re planning to keep your new car until the odometer rolls over, you’d better put those miles on quickly. Many million-mile warranties are actually 10-year or 1,000,000-mile warranties. That means you’ll need to drive 100,000 miles a year, on average, to make the most of them (most Americans drive more like 14,000 miles every year).

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Assuming you are the very unusual person who drives almost 300 miles a day in a non-commercial vehicle and plans to keep that vehicle for 10 years, there’s still fine print in the average million-mile warranty that could leave you holding the bag for major repairs. First, like all car warranties, they only apply to specific parts. Dealers’ long warranties are typically limited to the powertrain (including the engine, transmission, and drive axle). And usually only certain parts are covered. For instance, it’s common for damage to the engine block or cylinder head to only be covered by a warranty if the damage was caused by the failure of a different, covered, part. And if you ever want to cash in on your warranty, you’ll have to religiously observe the car’s service schedule and, in some cases, get all your service done at the dealership that sold you the car. Want to change your own oil? That might be fine, but only if you save the receipts for the oil filter.
There’s nothing inherently nefarious about an extended warranty program, especially if the dealer offers it for free. But it’s also relatively unlikely that you’ll ever reap any benefits from a million-mile plan. Dealers offer these programs to help build goodwill with customers, but we can safely assume they’d stop doing it if they found themselves routinely giving out free, expensive repairs. If you’re meticulous about your service records and keep your car for a long time, you may save some money on repairs down the line. But because of the variety of loopholes dealers leave in the paperwork, there’s also a decent chance you’ll find yourself paying for fixes out of pocket. So unless you fall into the narrow category of car buyers who can beat the house on a free extended warranty, don’t let it be the deciding factor in your purchase.
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