The Aptera: The electric car that never needs to be charged

Putting solar cells on the roof of a car and driving it directly with the power of the sun - it could be so easy. The California-based startup Aptera Motors has exactly this goal in mind. After years of development, the first "Production Intent Vehicle" was on display at the CES in Las Vegas last week. The first deliveries to customers could take place this year, and pre-orders have already reached five figures.
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Aptera through the ages
First attempt and bankruptcy
It has been twenty years since Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, two friendly, ambitious engineers, founded Aptera Motors in sunny California. The idea: a highly efficient vehicle with a range of 330 miles pro US gallon, which equates to about 0,7 liters of fuel per 100 km. Aptera initially wanted to achieve this incredibly low fuel consumption with an ultra-light and aerodynamic vehicle that has a serial hybrid drive.
When Aptera began accepting pre-orders for a deposit of $500, the response was quite remarkable. According to the company, around 4.000 interested parties decided to reserve the spaceship-like, revolutionary vehicle. But things didn't turn out as planned: In 2011, Aptera had to file for bankruptcy. The dream was shattered.
New Foundation and New Hope
In 2019, the name Aptera suddenly started to gain momentum again. Anthony and Fambro decided to re-establish the company Aptera and make a second attempt. The technical developments of recent years were of great benefit to them: batteries with higher energy density and more powerful solar cells were crucial to the startup's new goals. A hybrid drive was no longer considered; instead, a purely electric drive with a battery was chosen, which even surpasses a hybrid in terms of efficiency. In addition, solar cells distributed throughout the vehicle should ensure a longer range.
Maximum efficiency as a goal
Anthony and Fambro's goal is quickly clear: to build a car that is as efficient, environmentally friendly and affordable as possible. In a video published in 2021, Fambro sums it up precisely:
It's a shame that today's transportation industry is so inefficient. You put gasoline in a vehicle, you burn it, and you only get about 25% of the energy out of that gasoline. The rest is just up in smoke – literally.
It's a shame that today's transportation industry is so inefficient. You put gasoline in a vehicle, burn it, and you get just 25% of the energy out of the fuel. The rest is literally hot air.
It is no longer a secret that electric cars are setting new standards in terms of efficiency when the video is released. But Aptera wants to achieve maximum efficiency, just like in their first attempt. And according to initial figures, they are actually managing to far surpass popular efficiency champions such as the Tesla Model 3.
High efficiency solves many problems
What are the problems with electric cars in general? Too little range, charging stops that are too long. These problems can be solved by increasing the size of the battery and the charging power, but that causes another problem: rising costs. At Aptera, they have opted for the opposite: maximizing efficiency. If an electric car uses less energy, the battery does not have to be overly large to achieve a long range.
The same applies to the charging speed: If, for example, a vehicle only uses half the energy for 100 kilometers, only half the charging power is sufficient to recharge the same equivalent range in the same time. This results in enormous cost savings: no large and expensive battery, no complex cooling system for fast charging with high power and no large AC charger for fast charging at the home wall box. Last but not least, the end customer also saves a lot on electricity costs with their Aptera.
Physics as a strict requirement
So how can efficiency be maximized? By strictly adhering to physics. In concrete terms, this means minimizing driving resistance. Firstly, there is air resistance. This increases quadratically with increasing speed, so it makes up a very high proportion of the total driving resistance, especially when driving faster. Since the Aptera is not only built for the city, where speeds are not very high, but also for longer stretches at highway speeds, air resistance must be kept low. Aptera achieves this on the one hand by keeping the chassis as aerodynamic as possible, which is measured using the drag coefficient. A good drag coefficient is generally between 0,2 and 0,25; Aptera achieves 0,13 here. Just as important is the frontal area of the vehicle, which is also very small due to the small size of the Aptera and ensures low air resistance.
The other driving resistances are rolling resistance, gradient resistance and acceleration resistance. The weight of the vehicle plays a role in all of these resistances and must be minimized. This can be achieved mainly by using a lightweight carbon fiber body and a high-voltage battery that is as small as possible. It sounds strange - but here efficiency itself actually helps us to achieve greater efficiency. With greater efficiency it is possible to make the battery smaller, which in turn saves a lot of weight and thus increases efficiency. A win-win situation.
How useful are solar cells on the roof of a car?
Basically, you reach the limits of physics pretty quickly here. There is simply too little space on the roof of a car to accommodate so many solar cells for the vehicle to operate completely autonomously. However, you can push the boundaries here by maximizing efficiency. Just like with the example of charging power, which only needs to be half as high for a car that is twice as efficient, the same applies to solar cells. If a car with solar cells uses only half as much energy as another that has exactly the same number of solar cells, the solar cells in the first car will have twice the range. Efficiency wins.
Impressive result
After a lot of calculations with efficiency in focus, the Aptera is the result. A light, three-wheeled car with the look of a spaceship and numbers that make you think twice. With the largest battery, Aptera has an incredible range of 1.600 km. The solar cells on the roof and on the dashboard of the vehicle are said to have a range of up to 40 miles. pro day. For an average human driving distance pro On a day of just 25 miles, at least in theory, you would never actually need to recharge the Aptera.
Despite efficiency, a car with driving pleasure
Now you might think that this car is only suitable for energy-saving enthusiasts who go through life with their pockets sewn up. But you're far from it. Since electric motors hardly lose any efficiency even with a little more power, Aptera has decided to do a little something to make driving fun. The more powerful version of the Aptera has an all-wheel drive that accelerates the vehicle to 60 mph in under four seconds. This means you can easily leave the latest Porsche Carrera behind at the traffic lights. Apropos Porsche Carrera: According to the manufacturer, this consumes at least 10,1 liters of fuel per 100 km, or 85,85 kWh. That is about fourteen times the energy consumption of the Aptera.
The interior of the Aptera as a catch
The main problem with the highly efficient vehicle shape becomes apparent in the interior of the Aptera. It is quickly apparent that the Aptera only has two seats. There is no room for a second row of seats due to the aerodynamic shape, where the roof and floor inevitably have to converge towards the back. Instead, there is a relatively large, flat storage space in the rear of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the Aptera is therefore not a "family-friendly" vehicle.
Nevertheless, there are certainly quite a few groups of people for whom a vehicle with two seats is sufficient and who benefit from the enormous efficiency of the Aptera proIn fact, it is hardly possible to beat this figure - you would have to ride a bike or walk to do so.
The Aptera can still be ordered for a fee of $100. The launch edition is expected to cost $40.000, and a version with a smaller battery is planned for just $28.000 in the future. It is unclear whether the Aptera will also find its way to Europe.
Aptera's first incarnation failed to get the same government funding that Tesla did, so the did not have money to proceed and they returned all reservation deposits before closing up shop.
Now they have 52,000 reservations for the solar car, which is the number found in CES news reports this month.
More than 30 years ago, I had a similarly revolutionary mobility idea, namely to build an energy-self-sufficient, multi-functional solar (city) vehicle, based on a former series vehicle (not built for 50 years), namely a VW Type 147, which was way ahead of its time: a lightweight station wagon, shorter than a VW Beetle, also popular as a mobile home, with plenty of space for batteries and around 10 square meters of solar panels, in other words a "jack of all trades"!
At the time, all the major German car manufacturers to whom I had presented my concept at various electromobility conferences thought I was crazy and that my idea was not feasible.
By the way, I still own the car today, unfortunately without the modifications mentioned, but it is original.