Steve Fambro’s light and slippery three-wheeler is way ahead of the pack: Aptera has already build at least two running prototypes of its all-electric Typ-1 e (one of which we’ve driven) en route to limited production this year, with a hybrid model to follow sometime after that. “We’ll be up to one car per week by October in terms of pilot production.” says Fambro, who has his sights set on 10,000 vehicles per year by 2011. “We have enough right now to get into production and go from cash negative to cash positive.” If some of the 1700 preordered Typ-1s hit garages by the end of next year, Aptera will be just a few months behind Tesla—with plans already in motion for a four-wheeler (code name: Palomar) to compete directly with the WhiteStar.
How it Works
The 1500-pound Typ-1 e is an all-electric, rear-drive vehicle that uses a 10 kWh li-ion battery pack to juice the electric motor. Aptera says the car will hit 60 mph in 10 seconds and run all the way to 85 mph. Solar roof panels are designed to capture sunlight, convert it to energy and power the climate-control system at least part of the time. In addition to testing battery packs from known companies in the U.S. and one in China, Aptera has an electric motor supplier with over 14 million development miles on similar powertrains under the belt.
Bottom Line
With a big first round of funding closing at the end of the month and industry veterans signed on, Aptera is now shopping for a 100,000-sq.-ft. production facility. The startup has a jig for testing door and roof crush and has been modeling front-side safety virtually, but a dynamic crash test is on tap for this summer. The biggest hurdle for the Typ-1, Fambro says, is perfecting the body’s gel-coat finish. After that, it’s a head-to-head race with Tesla to Californian homes and the X Prize purse—we give Aptera the lead by a nose. —B.S.
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