Anyone else excited about the Aptera Launch edition?

And yes, it comes with DC fast charging (via Tesla plug?!)

If Aptera were at least a 4 seater, I'd be digging into my savings for a downpayment.

Hopefully we can get one in four or five years or so after the boys move out on their own.

This car (or trike?) is probably the only non-stick-shift vehicle I'd want to drive to have fun in. Anything else is purely a practical puchase decision.

 

No offense, but I don't think comparing the Aptera to just any old three-wheeler is a fair comparison. It's kind of like comparing a Prius with a Hummer just because they both have 4 wheels.

 

Ya who knows. Some say it's the new Tesla. Others say it'll last until Aptera realizes only a few people wanted them and there's no more demand for them. And others feel that with so many failed attempts at making this car (how many decades has Aptera been around now?) that they're just a phoney company that will never produce anything worthwhile.

But for me, I hope the best for them. This is the kind of car I think of when I hear "EV". Anything else is just an immitation of internal combustion engine cars. To me, even Tesla is just a typical sedan with an electric motor and touch screen installed. The same with Rivian being a Pickup. It's like car companies can't break away from all these 100-year-old designs. But the Aptera is a car that has a completely new designed from the ground up to work as well as possible with EV technology, not EV technology adapted as well as possible to work in an age old vehicle design.

 

Yes!

The only gripe among fans was the initial Apteras weren't going to have DC fast charging. Then a few days ago (?) they came out with an anouncement that all Apteras will have DC fast charging.

The specs fpr the lauch Apteras are:
400 miles per charge,
400 (or more) miles added in an hour of DC fast charging.

So if you do some 600 miles in a day (which is about all I can drive) you'd have to add one hour (which we usually stop for an hour lunch). So essentially, this is the EV that, in my case, could be used for road trips and potentially wouldn't add any extra time.

Wait until the 1,000 mile version comes out!

I better make my reservation too if it's going to take 4 years to get one!

 

True. And for many, if not most people, if not the entire world except me, they would all be happy to drive around some super car or large SUV or something similar. Most people find touchscreens fun and stuff like that, but not me.

To me, I just find modern vehicles to be boring.

Maybe it's where I live. If I owned a Tesla, for an example, the instant torque and 3 second acceleration and such would never be of any value. My town has a townwide speed limit of 25mph. There are no on ramps onto any highways. As you leave town in any direction the speed limit goes up in small increments (30mph, 35mph, 45mph, 50mph, 55mph, and finally 65mph). So what am I supposed to do? Peal out from 25mph to 30mph? I'm also a stickler for driving the speed limit.

I really miss driving a stick shift. To me, that adds fun in any vehicle, even one that's underpowered at 40 or 50hp. I'd rather drive a 40hp stickshift than a 1,020hp Tesla Plaid. I'm not an SUV enthusiast either, nor a pickup enthusiast.

Well the stickshift is dead and we're on our way to an all EV future. I will probably just keep buying cars on the basis of practicality. But the Aptera is the car that I feel can break the mold for me. It doesn't have a stickshift, and it has a touch screen, which I'm also not a fan of, but it's just so different, it's cool!

 

True. Kind of like the difference between a diesel sedan and a gasoline sedan and a compressed natural gas sedan. A sedan is a sedan. But don't throw an electric motor and battery in a sedan (or SUV or pickup) and act like it's the kind of car we were promised by the Jetson's, Back to the Future and others.

If I were to get an EV as a second car and keep an ICEV for those long trips (or just rent for long trips, although I no longer trust rental companies) I could see not having any DC fast charging. But we're kind of a one car family, which became a problem when we tried to make a Leaf work as our only car. Around town it was perfect, but only on one long trip did we ever come across a DC quick charging station. Sitting at level 2 or even level 1 chargers all day whenever we wanted to venture a bit further than our neighborhood wasn't the most convenient way to travel.

That being said, I don't see a two seater as being an only car for us.

 

To many variables to account for. I have no idea how long my boys will stay with us, or what our vehicle needs will be even if they do. If it were a 4 seater then it would be on top priority.

There's also financials to consider. This is probably reveiling too much of myself online, but I finally have to oportunity of purchasing a home. There is even aid as a low income earner. But the catch is I can't make more than $56,000 per year (which I don't) but the cost of the loan would be nearly $300,000 with monthly payments being $2,000, almost half our income. The most I've ever bought a car for was just north of $15,000.

It probably will have a greatly reduced range due to snow and slush. The battery itself will depend on how good the winter heating of the battery is. I'm saying this as someone who would drive a Nissan Leaf in as low as -30°F weather day after day. The worse mileage I ever got in the winter was half of normal summer mileage.