200-300MPG, Infinite Range

When they have a real one for real testing, I'll look at it.

 

Cant go camping or take any road trips. No room for any gear.

 

We had three cars...one of which was a corvette. Invariably the day I took the 'vette to work something would happen and I'd have to pick up the kids. That required a trip home to get my truck and then back-track to get the kids. A real pain in the backside. Eventually the 'vette sat in the driveway all the time and then we decided we didn't want 40K sitting in the driveway only to be used on weekend trips to the car wash. Two seaters are only toys if you have a family. IMHO.

 

Actually, it's a 2+1, where there is a bit of room in the rear middle for an infant seat. Think of half of the space of a Porsche 911. They sell a lot of those, don't they?

Actually, there's a surprising amount of room under the rear hatch.

From the FAQ: There is enough storage space to fit 15 bags of groceries, two full-size golf club bags or even a couple of seven foot surf boards.

But then again, your Prius can't go offroad, tow a boat or haul 8 people and gear, so why the heck did you buy that?

 

Plus the website does say that a 4-passenger model might come in the future.

This just comes down to defining the actual requirements of the family buying the vehicle. Currently, I only really need a 2 passenger vehicle, though the cargo capacity of the Prius is very good to have for taking trips with my wife, our dog and luggage. I still probably would have bought a Honda Insight if they were still being sold new in 2008.

I'd be able to get by with that because my wife's car is a Toyota Echo, which has a reasonable amount of cargo space for a small car.

 

Me too! I am looking to replace my WRX with something fuel-efficient and gives at least some amount of driving enjoyment on twisty roads. I hope that either the new hybrid from Honda or new Prius due out next spring fits the bill.

Aptera is just down the street from where I work. When they start letting the general public test drive them later this year, I'll definitely try one. If the price were closer to $20k instead of $30k, it'd be a lot easier to justify the purchase.

 

LOL.

 

this is my advice:

think about apple computers gear. the early adopters almost always suffer
due to wanting the stuff first. allow these pioneers to pay the piper when
things go wrong, recalls, and work out the all the bugs.

then along comes patient smarty pants, ;-), who happily buys the 2nd
generation of the vehicle and reaps the rewards of a well developed product.
Also you may or may not get a discount due to them making them in volume!

i do it with computer gear, i do it with cars, and I do it with almost every
complicated product on the market.

less pain, more enjoyment.

interesting car though, i have to admit that. very neat looking.

 

There is a thread about the speculated width of the Aptera located here at ApteraForum.com.

 

I actually saw a TV commercial for a company that sponsors Aptera or something, I looked up and there the car was on the screen! As for the car, love the concept, but would not be able to handle driving it. I wouldn't want people always staring, asking questions, stealing my car even? I really wish it looked more like a normal car. Ah well.

 

Everybody on here keeps calling it a car...truth is it is not.

I am in full support of this type of technology leap, but isn't there a difference in these two types of vehicles, mainly safety laws?

I thought like the nev's if they didn't go over a speed of 25 then they were not held to "real car" safety standards...same with the aptera being registered as a motorcycle(wonder if they are going to require seatbelts...)

My guess is that the 4 seater talked about will have 4 wheels and be a "car"

That thing does rock out though!!

 

Since the first time I saw it, I've wondered why they didn't just make it with four wheels. It can be a simple post, like the other three wheels. But a fourth wheel would make it much more stable and safer. (and possibly, they would then be able to make it more narrow)

Does anyone know if they are still planning to make an all-electric version of the Aptera?

 

If the vehicle that is passing you is going X mph faster than you and you are in a certain range of radius on their front corner, there is an air cushion being pushed out of the way by their vehicle. I once accidentally drifted into the lane of a Full-size van that was going about 20mph faster than me, and the air being pushed out of his way LITERALLY pushed my car back into my lane. It felt like an air cushion around the other vehicle. My brain lit up like a light bulb as I thought about what had just happened. Although I would never intentionally try to set up such an event, I thought it was Awesome!

 

I think the commuter cities need to rethink the automobile. For families who have at least one steady commuter, go to a plan where you have an all electric family car / van that can get that 100 mile local travel done for the day in / day out auto useage. (No gas). Dad has something like the all electric Aptera that he uses for his longer daily commute (200 miles on a charge should pretty well handle any of us for the day).

The arguement always goes back to "We need to be able to pack the canoes, bikes and the whole house to the woods every weekend, so this wouldn't work for us."

Well, stop packing so much crap to the woods and if you do really go every weekend, then this is probably not the plan for you. But for the 95% of the commuters who really only go on one or two bigger out of town trips a year, there could be a rental industry where we rent the Minivan or Tahoe for the week and for the other 50 weeks a year, we are primarily or completely gas free.

Our first step was when I sold my diesel pickup for the Prius. Now, we either drive the minivan as a family or I am commuting in the prius. My wife usually drives the prius when she's going somewhere on her own (and I'm home). Her minivan could easily be all electric as could my prius. When we want to drive off to someplace a day or two away we could rent a gas burner and spend some of the thousands we are saving on gas.

Take that times 40 million cars and we are essentially energy independant.

 

Exactly what I did.
Sold my Pathfinder and 2 seater Mercedes SLK.
We drive our van only when needed.
Our Prius is the "go to" car.
I have been following the Aptera from the start.
At first they were going for desiel but couldnt pass the enviromental test.
Bought my Prius when I found the Aptera would be California only at first.
I figured it would take to long to get sales and everything that goes with it to Arkansas.
By the way,Aptera is classed as a motorcycle.

 

It's more conservative. I read it somewhere on their website, the 300mpg being quoted is for the first 120miles. That's using up the charge from the battery being plugged in. Then the mpg goes down, eventually when the battery is depleted and you're cruising on the highway the mpg is "only" 130mpg. They picked 120miles and the 300mpg because that covers a vast majority of drivers max daily mileage.