I just reserved an Aptera!

in #exxp3 years ago


Let me explain why I reserved an Aptera - they are super cool...

Hi everyone!

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that's read my Lift Aircraft, Arcimoto or numerous Tesla posts that I'm a massive electric vehicle nerd.

I've been on this bandwagon for a long time... most of my life Australia has had to deal a ton of environmental issues; from the hole in the ozone layer throughout my childhood, to really scary, long-lasting droughts to the huge bushfires a year ago.

When we moved from Australia to America, we were absolutely astounded that every second vehicle on the roads seemed to be a massive pickup truck like the F-150. They are just a monster compared to the Ford Falcon ute we where used to seeing...


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Petrol/Gas in the US is so crazy cheap compared to Australia and Europe, but obviously Australia can't afford for the world to keep burning fossil fuels at the same rate is has been, and so advances in electric vehicles are always going to catch my eye...

This electric vehicle caught my eye


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So I literally just reserved my own Aptera. What on earth is that?

It's this...

Or in a less video-y format:


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So it looks super futuristic, which I really like... but it's the specs that absolutely blow me away.

It is super, super, super aerodynamic, which means it is super fast, super efficient and super cheap.

Here is what I ordered...


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I specced it up pretty hard and so I'll be getting a $29,300 car (minus whatever Federal and State incentives are available (Fed $7500 Oregon $2500 currently)) that I might not even have to charge.

That's right... I might get away with never paying for fuel/power.

AND... it'll do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. Craziness!

When we get back into the office, I have a 10 mile commute each way... but the Aptera has a 250 mile battery and enough solar panels on it to charge 24 miles while it's parked.

If a 250 range vehicle makes you nervous, they have more expensive options, with even a 1000 mile battery option at $45k.


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The solar panels seem pretty subtle...

Reserved an Aptera
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and the interior looks so so so cool...

Reserved an Aptera
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... and while it's obviously not for everyone, especially since it's just a 2 seater vehicle, given how cheap it's going to be, I think it makes a perfect 2nd or 3rd vehicle for the family.

Reserved an Aptera
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Solar Powered Electric Vehicle

They call it a SEV, which is a Solar Electric Vehicle. A Tesla is a BEV, a Battery Electric Vehicle and a Toytoa Prius is a PHEV which is a Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicle - it can be powered by both petrol and batteries. There are also FCEVs (Full Cell Electric Vehicles) which might be powered by, say, hydrogen cells, but I'm just not excited by that technology.

I'm really excited I reserved an Aptera, but like everyone who has ordered one, I'm probably going to have to wait a year or more until they hit their strides in production. They haven't built their production lines yet, but it sounds like the company has got Sandy Munro to help with that, so I'm confident it'll be challenging, but they'll get there.

Now that I've ordered one with a $100 refundable reserve fee, they've given me a referral code so if you're interested in reserving one it'll only cost you $70. I wish I had known that before I got too excited... anyway, here is the link to my referral code.

I'm so excited about this vehicle and this company. I truly hope that Tesla has paved the way for some truly innovative vehicles to help us crawl a bit of the future back for the generations to follow.

If you have any questions or you're super excited or think I've made a terrible mistake, let me know on the tweet below...

Thanks for reading!



Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://lifebe.com.au/technology/i-just-reserved-an-aptera/
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Certainly looks cool! (the images are working fine, did you edit them back in or were they just slow to load for you?) I don't even know if it would be a subsequent vehicle in our house, two seaters just doesn't cut it for anything that we haul XD

Will just have to wait for the tech to trickle down :)

Oh.... you're right. I actually didn't do anything about those images.. so I guess they fixed themselves. That's good to know.

Totally get that... not the vehicle for huge haulage... maybe this is the type of car the kids'll be interested in when they start driving (although it's wild to think that young kids today may never learn to drive if every gets automated).

J is pretty determined that they are going to learn how to drive manuals even though those seem to be getting made a bit less these days.

I don't think the car would even suffice for my kids, especially middle child with how many friends they would be travelling with XD

Hahaha oh yeah... I forgot that kids have friends. Last time I had a two seater car I then foolishly joined a couple of indoor soccer teams... that was a huge mistake.

Bahahahahahhahaaa XD

I dunno man. Im also currently looking to buy a new car and i did look into an electric one at first. I have a Tesla supercharger 100 meters from my house so a Tesla model 3 was under consideration but when i looked at it a bit closer the charging times are simply too inconvenient for me. (And the interior looks kind of like the inside of a dentist waiting room. lol)
This car looks good and is cool but it shares many of the same issues imo. Its more of a hobby car in my eyes than something serious to drive around in.
I think ill be getting a 3008 probably and maybe an electric bike :)

That's all fair. Do you have a garage or would your car be parked out on the street? I think most Tesla owners rarely end up at a supercharger because they plug their car in overnight. The superchargers just tend to be for those long trips.

It'd be the same with this Aptera, it'd charge with the solar panels while I've parked at work which "should" give it all the juice I need for the trip home and the trip to work the next day. I shouldn't have to plug it in... but if I did, I've got a garage so I'd just plug it in overnight.

We do already have a farm truck ute thing, so this would really just be for us to commute in... if we're not feeling it or want to go to the snow or on longer trips we've got the ute.

That looks like a lot of fun!!

I am hoping to be able to hold out to see what comes in from Toyota in the form of the Solid state batteries.

Ahhhhh, I actually used to work for Toyota, but I haven't been keeping track of their developments. I thought they were going down the hydrogen fuel cell route. Obviously I have a ton more research to do... this space is exhausting in it's excitingness...

yeah, it was only really announced a few weeks ago and they are working together with Subaru on their all-electrics. Should be really interesting to see if they can scale it at a lower cost, as Toyoto is pretty good at making quality cars for the masses.

They really are! My partner had a Toyota Echo for 14 years without a single issue (except windscreen and battery replacement). That's kind of amazing.

Our last 3 cars have been Suburus so it really is an excellent partnership. Really excited to see what comes out of this.

Just came across this ridiculous number.

50% of cars in Norway sold last year were full electric. 0.19% in Australia.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/motoring-news/norway-leads-the-way-on-electric-car-sales/news-story/e9b8f02cbd043ccc6717163da07cfe1c

It drives me crazy that Australia is so far behind in renewables. The country has the environment, the education and the motivation to be a world leader in this space. My FIL believes that the big Tesla battery in South Australia 'just doesn't work' despite all the statistics and data showing it to be an incredible success.

If I remember correctly, they did it in less than 100 days and under the 100M budget. The alternative was a decade long project and 6-10 billion in investment to do the same.

Yeah, but it just doesn't work.

I wonder how it would deal with undulating surfaces or any sort of bad terrain. Other than that, it looks like something cut out if a sci-fi movie and the very fact that you will never have to buy fuel for this car is awesome. The solar panels are a nice touch too. I remember a friend of mine tinkering with the potential of using solar panels and solar energy to power the secondary energy consumers in a UAV, he'd probably have seen this already and would be excited.

I guess it comes down to the clearance between the tires and the wheel coverings they have. The two front wheels have independent axles, so they might actually be better at handling bad terrain than a fixed axle. Maybe...

I'm definitely curious to how this vehicle might go on frost/ice with it's 3 wheels. We've already got a farm ute that I'd probably use on bad weather days, but I'd want to know how it handles in case I get caught out.

Omg. I need one of these!
I am also on board with the eletric cars and I still want my tesla! But this one looks amazing aswell!

I'm 100% aiming to get a Model 3 in 2021. I've been holding out for a while because we had leased a Forrester, but once we're back to commuting I want that Model 3. I know I could end up with 3 cars for just 2 of us... but in that case I'd just send the Model 3 out as a robo taxi.

Amazing!

I am no where near where you are hehe :p
I dont have a car and never owned one, I live in Denmark in Copenhagen so its really not needed for me to get a car, thats why I want Tesla to be my frist car when I need one :D

You properly good rented as a robo taxa "soon"

Yeah, unfortunately where we are, we just can't live without a car. The public transport system just doesn't have the infrastructure to be useful to anyone but a very small subset of people.

We've saved quite a lot of money working from home these last 9 months and we're probably looking at another 6 months before we will need to commute again, so hopefully by then our savings in not-commuting will translate into savings from commuting with electric.

Ohh thats sucks :o

Uhh, that sounds like an awesome trade off :D

Hmm, the images are being weird... they all seem to work okay over on my blog : https://lifebe.com.au/technology/i-just-reserved-an-aptera/

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