Electric mobility and technology keeps creating in order to generate extraordinary monetary gains. Recently, California-based startup Aptera officially launched its solar-powered electric three-wheeler.
The car has a unit cost between $ 25,900 to $ 46,900 depending on its range. One of the versions has a range of 640 kilometers per charge -the Paradigm model- and another of 1,600 kilometers, corresponding to the Paradigm + model.
According to the official Aptera website, both versions are out of stock for sales, allowing only custom designs.
“We never could have imagined the outpouring of interest and support that has followed our announcement.” the company said. “We quickly sold out of our Aptera Paradigm and Paradigm+ editions on the first day, and things haven’t slowed down since.”
They also announced that they will increase production with a new facility in San Diego and two more development vehicles in the coming weeks, with a view to starting deliveries in 2021 and early 2022.
How is it made?
The Aptera is an electric car that allows its batteries to be partially recharged through solar panels arranged on the bodywork. It is initially sold with two or three motors and with four batteries to choose from, the smallest of 25 kilowatt hours and the largest of 100.
It is the brainchild of Aptera Motors, a company based in California since its foundation in 2005. Although they ceased operations in 2011, they are now recharging with an electric car whose main attraction is that it allows part of the battery to be recharged through some solar panels arranged on the bodywork, in such a way that it would not be necessary to connect it to the network to face most of the daily routes.
Its innovative three-wheel configuration and its peculiar recharging system mean that it has no clear rivals in the market.
Exterior design
The Aptera measures 4.44 meters in length, 2.24 meters in width and 1,360 meters in height, with a wheelbase of 2.77 meters.
Its peculiar image is largely due to the fact that it has only three tires, all of them fairings for the benefit of aerodynamics. The front ones protrude from the central structure of the car.
The doors open in a scissor format and in them are the cameras that replace conventional mirrors.
The Aptera’s Cx is just 0.13. To put it in context, it should be remembered that the Porsche Taycan, one of the best-worked vehicles in this regard, remains at 0.22.
The Aptera has been designed through a scalable system that allows units to be quickly produced as each unit consists of only four main parts.
Interior design
It has capacity for two passengers. Both sit on sporty seats. Behind the steering wheel, which has a rectangular shape, there is no dashboard. Just to its right is where a large screen appears on which all the necessary data are displayed, in addition to allowing the management of the multimedia system.
There are two other screens located at the ends to show what the cameras that replace the mirrors are capturing.
The mechanics
The Aptera can be equipped with two or three motors, each rated at 50 kilowatts of power. In this way, the total can be 100 or 150 kilowatts, whose thermal equivalents are 136 and 204 horses. The most capable version accelerates from 0 to 96 kilometers per hour in 3.5 seconds. Top speed is almost 180 kilometers per hour.
Aptera can include four batteries of different capacities. The lightest is 25 kilowatts per hour, while the strongest goes up to 100. According to the US homologation protocol, the EPA, the first of the versions can travel about 400 kilometers between charges, while the second exceeds the 1,600. There are also variants of 40 and 60 kilowatt hours of capacity, which ensure a range of about 645 and 965 kilometers respectively.
Aptera Motors has not disclosed how long the car has to remain connected to the network to regain its full range. However, they confirmed that, thanks to the solar panels that the body has, it can recover a maximum of 102.8 kilometers -60 kilometers with the roof panels and 38.8 with those of the rest of the body, which are optional-, more than enough figure to complete most of the daily routes. There are a total of 180 solar cells and according to the vehicle’s creators, 17,700 kilometers can be traveled for a year thanks to the energy provided by the sun.
