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  • In 1991 Audi presented the Quattro Spyder, which had a detachable solar roof. The idea was to run a fan to prevent overheating of the interior.

    And now they won't to power the entire car with energy from solar cells on the car? I have my doubts.

    by jansan
  • In case you didn't notice, today's solar panels are more efficient and much cheaper than the solar panels of 1991.

    Also, enough energy for some range ≠ enough power to drive constantly.

    by Liftyee
  • On the "charging-from-the-sun" side of the equation, they recently had an independent German test organization measure the daily charge rate, and it exceeded the 4.0kWh/day goal. The test was conducted at their Southern California headquarters during July, however, so your mileage may (literally) vary.
    by TeaVMFan
  • So dumb. Build bike lanes and use ebikes, many of which already go 30mph+. The only hurdle is a weatherproof cover so you have heating and cooling and stay dry which together with an ebike would be way cheaper than this.

    And as a bonus it will help with the obesity problem plaguing this planet which kills thousands yearly.

    by amazingamazing
  • I mean getting wet/hot is a pretty big disadvantage of e-bikes compared to cars in many situations. But anyway this is a crazy niche product. Don't worry it's not going to have any effect on e-bikes whatsoever.
    by IshKebab
  • So there's a company in China, Launch, to which you can outsource making cars. Like Flextronics for electronics. So you can have a "fabless" car company.

    The economics of that are interesting. Launch just makes cars. They don't take the market risk of having to sell them to consumers.

    As for Aptera, "We are committed to commencing production and delivery as soon as possible. However, the exact timing remains uncertain and is dependent on several key factors..." So it's a Kickstarter for cars. At this point you have to ask whether the product is the car or the next financing round.

    Also, it may have too much China content to be sold in the US. They may have to pay off Trump to get past that.

    by Animats
  • Valmet in Finland does this too.
    by speed_spread
  • They've been designing this thing for 20 years now ..
    by steveBK123
  • And they've been through significant financial and organizational chaos for probably 10 to 15 of those years. I really do hope they succeed and get a product out there. It would be a big win for a large group of people.
    by rickydroll
  • I am surprised nobody here mentioned the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightyear_0
    by Gys
  • This is like building a gas powered car with a refinery attached to the roof.

    Batteries exist. Solar panels add weight and design constraints. Why is this a thing? What am I missing?

    by standeven
  • You’re missing that many people do not live in single-family homes with easy plug-in charging. Especially in big cities.

    That’s one reason electric cars are a bit of a luxury item right now.

    by softwaredoug
  • Solar panel efficiency has increased and they have made an extremely slippery vehicle. 4kWh/day and 10 miles per kWh gives 40 miles per day of driving range, enough for many people without ever plugging in.
    by TeaVMFan
  • This is clearly not a winning idea if you're a spreadsheet-loving engineer that can run the numbers, and is interested enough in clean tech to do so. But that's 5% of the population, tops.

    To the 95% of people without the inclination or knowledge to check the figures, this looks great! It's a car with zero fuel costs, it's EV charging for people who don't have off-street parking, it's a fix for EVs sitting in workplace car parks at times of peak solar output, and it's most of the benefits of covering car parks in solar panels.

    by michaelt
  • I am a big booster of both solar power and electric vehicles, but boy, Aptera’s trying to thread a needle I just don’t think we’ve got the technology to thread yet. The efficiency of solar panels isn’t high enough to consistently generate enough power to propel a vehicle made of currently practical materials that meets modern automotive safety standards far enough fast enough to be useful, and I suspect they’re going to have to get esoteric enough in the materials, electronics, and manufacturing that the price is going to be prohibitive at the scale of the market willing to make the sacrifices the vehicle will require.

    I don’t know if it’s theoretically possible to do what they want to do at some point - I don’t know if enough energy is present in the sunlight that falls on the space available on a normal car to power something that meets what the average person would consider their mobility needs - but I just can’t see it with the current state of the art, unless I’ve missed some big shifts in the last few years.

    I’d love to be wrong, I prefer to be an optimist, but my inner engineer is just sadly shaking his head no.

    by roughly
  • Have a look at the solar endurance cars; they are pretty interesting on their own, and have had some "functional" designs over the years.

    It's possible to make a sedan sized car that can be power positive at highway speeds in summer; even with modern safety and features. It's the rest of the year...

    by servo_sausage
  • In a world where sedans have been replaced by SUVs, I don't see how the market would react positively to this. But then again, Lime scooters are paradoxically also a thing. I guess maybe it's a matter of marketing?
    by geremiiah
  • The Aptera is the exact same height as the Toyota Camry, the #5 best-selling vehicle in the United States.
    by Grombobulous
  • Market != USA
    by pbkompasz
  • Electric scooters are a walking enhancer in an urban area. Now you can go 20kph in a city and easily park your vehicle. They're also super cheap to own and operate (or borrow one when needed). That's a totally different animal than a $40k subcompact trike car that requires an actual paid parking spot
    by richiebful1
  • What's paradoxical about Lime scooters? That they are small compared to SUVs?
    by xnx
  • There are many cities in the US where renting a scooter to travel a couple miles is as fast as (often faster than) waiting for and riding in a car, and costs perhaps a third as much. But I can't speak for whether this solar car is anything other than hype; those are different matters.
    by elmomle
  • I'd love if the roof and the hood of my plugin hybrid could have solar panels built in. I drive it very rarely and short distance. lf it could be topped up over few days, before next grocery or restaurant trip, I'd be delighted. I know there's not much energy to be gathered but it would suffice me. Instead I have glass roof for no reason, as if there was anything interesting straight up. Car manufacturers somewhat lost the plot.
    by scotty79
  • Why though? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just have solar panels at your home where the power can be routed to batteries/ home power/ sell to the grid and configured optimally?
    by ianm218
  • The Hyundai Sonata had this feature on a production car.
    by tencentshill
  • > I'd love if the roof and the hood of my plugin hybrid could have solar panels built in. I drive it very rarely and short distance.

    An old neighbor of mine had a Prius with a factory-installed small solar panel, definitely 50W or less, that IIRC was connected to the 12V battery. So one of the benefits would be in counteracting draw from various always-on computers in modern vehicles.

    by Panino
  • I work in this space. Took one look at Launch and instantly recognise the type of company they are (aftersales/paper pushing) and that this will probably fail due to lack of actual engineering experience with DfM, control software, etc.
    by aetherspawn
  • warning: total manufacturing newbie here

    But i would like to ask.

    How much effort/legal/heartache is involved in building an after market add-on for commercial vehicles?

    Some comforting assumptions - internal customers. no sales. - good software talent. can work around anything. - almost no moving parts - mostly electronics - can accept cost overrun on the components - each unit is >$10K - gradual scaling to 1000s units/annum - daily return to hubs if needed

    by algo_trader
  • Is this so Aptera can pass the buck when it flops again (“it’s Launch’s fault, we swear”)?

    This really doesn’t answer any questions. $44 million (and worthless paper stock warrants) is also immensely low for new vehicle tooling as a whole.

    (I'll point out that an article about Slate's frugality[1] still shows some massive costs involved here. They scored a $200 million assembly line component originally from GM for $12 million. Uh, if that kind of seven/eight-figure investment is required for a single component of an assembly line, how far does this $44 million go for Aptera?)

    [1] https://www.autoline.tv/automotive-insight/slate-a-mastercla...

    by kotaKat
  • Warrants aren't worthless if there aren't any for sale.
    by conorcleary