Aptera Solar Electric Vehicle – POV First Impressions
Hey guys today we’ve got something very special for you and something I’ve been looking forward to reviewing and looking at and sharing with you guys for a long time we are at aptera headquarters here in carlbad California and we’re going to be checking out their latest gamma
Prototype we have a bunch of other prototype Vehicles behind it I’m here with Chris you’re going to be walking me around we’re actually going to be able to drive this a little bit around the warehouse today too uh we could take it out on the road but it’s kind of rainy
And wet out there and they don’t want their Priceless prototype vehicle in the rain which is understandable um some info about the aptera it is absolutely stunning I don’t know if you guys have even seen this you may have heard of it you may have seen some ads
On it seen it online while browsing I’m actually a reservation holder on this because I saw it and it was just kind of love it first sight I had to have it pricing on this is going to be between 26 to $46,000 the launch edition is going to
Have 400 miles of range it is an electric vehicle that is also solar powered so you can park this outside and there will be solar panels on the hood on the roof on the back of the tailgate here in sunny California it’ll charge about 40 m a day when parked outside in
Dr Michigan about 20 m a day probably Y and you can also plug it in in the back there’s a Tesla charger and you can fast charge this at a fast charger or you can plug it in your garage your house and uh fast charging this charg is at like what
50 60 Kow yeah so it’s 400 to 600 miles an hour so it’s it’s fast you know you think about a slow charge at a Tesla charger um it’ll suddenly feel really fast right that’s amazing and the reason for that is the philosophy of this vehicle so this is contrary to all the
Other EVS on the market that weigh 5,000 7,000 lb this weighs 1,700 lb and it has a drag coefficient of .13 and that’s kind of my favorite thing about this aptera is just the design philosophy the design the aerodynamics it’s all dictated by efficiency and it’s meant to
Kind of be the most efficient possible vehicle to take you from A to B it is a two-seater and it’s a three-wheeler so this will be available in front-wheel drive or three-wheel drive all-wheel drive I live in Michigan so I have reservation on an all-wheel drive version they’re going to have a camper
That will kind of uh integrate into the rear hatch you’ve got a ton of room in the back you can sleep there’s even like an off-road lift kit so kind of a all sorts of stuff kind of an adventure oriented vehicle too and in addition to just looking like a spaceship this is
One of the few vehicles that I’ve ever seen that actually looks like it’s from 2024 the year that we’re in everything else just kind of looks about the same so let’s walk you around this a little bit today we’ll take it for a bit of a
Drive around the warehouse try not to uh run over any solar panels Chris has got some cool stuff to show us and uh yeah so first tell me a little bit about these prototypes we’ve got uh what are what are the names as as we kind of
Progress through yeah so these are alpha prototypes so this is you know if in the world of car development there’s Alpha Beta Gamma Delta okay so this is Alpha our beta is in Italy right now but that’s what our suspension test mule and then gamma is the one you’ll be driving
Today and then you know Delta is the production intent vehicle so these were kind of the proof of Concepts that started it all so this is going to be classified as an autocycle yeah not necessarily a full-blown car but still crash test safety it’s got airbags you
Guys are trying to make this as safe as possible just wanted to show you the different paint options too this is a actually it’s not paint it’s a wrap right so it’s very durable and if you want to change the color you can just rewrap it and it should be pretty easy
To do because a lot of just smooth curvacious lines on this right over 50% of the capital in a traditional Automotive plant is just the paint shot so by eliminating the paint shop this vehicle is much cheaper to get into production which is super exciting and people are wrapping everything anywhere
These days yeah the white looks really good it does yeah this is stunning I’d probably get it in white yeah I think I’ve changed back and forth between white and the matte this like matte silver yeah it does look really cool with the solar and everything it does
Yeah this looks like a movie car it looks like something completely out of the future yeah well before people start showing up let’s go for a quick drive sounds good hop in that’s what the Channel’s all about and then we’ll nerd out on some details so first things
First just do a quick walk around to open the door you knocked twice and there has to be a bit of a a break you did here oh we’re here there we go the more you know so this back area this is kind of this is huge what what
Is this this space it’s it’s really big there’s 32.5 cubic feet of storage space in the launch edition vehicle and that includes a little cargo bunk that isn’t in this prototype where you can put your charging cables your adapters but I mean yeah you can fit you know I feel like I
Could throw a mountain oh yeah yeah I could almost sleep back here I’m 5 fo 10 get in there yeah and if you move the seats forward I mean you have at least 8 ft of space okay so pretty pretty great that’s neat that’s really neat wow cool
And then same thing with the doors they have poppers on them and they come up like Lamborghini doors which is the coolest thing ever wheel covers love the lights the interior design the coloring all looks really cool this screen isn’t production intent yet it’s going to be a
Little bit more maybe a little bit smaller fit the the design of everything a bit differently we can show you guys what that’ll look like later but let’s hop in great and go for a quick little drive so we don’t have full power today and we are on a slightly slippery
Warehouse surface this has about maybe 40% of power power that a production vehicle have so what do you guys estimate 0 to 60 is going to be around 4 seconds seconds it really feels faster than that cuz it’s so low to the ground you know it it really has a a fast
Sporty feel to it it’s going to be a pretty quick EV I mean as all EVS are they’re they’re fast and this is no exception so park reverse neutral drive you just select that on the screen uh production Vehicles will have an adjustable steering wheel the seat is
Interesting so it kind of the the rails ramp up so the closer your of the wheel the higher you are which ergonomically makes a lot of sense this is mostly a production steering wheel I think you guys are going to extend the black around here so you know grubby hands
Don’t mark it up too much exactly and then what about this the mirrors as screens is that legal yeah yeah so you know we have both so this is actually the motorcycle required minimum okay for for the left and right reflective surfaces but we really think the people
Who drive this vehicle are just going to use the displays okay cool and then you’ve got window controls yeah this is a super aerodynamic design you can have the windows down put your arm out and you really shouldn’t really get a whole lot of buffeting or disrupt
The flow of air around the vehicle that’s good horn go through drive-throughs yeah there will be a horn there yeah that’ll be your air bag my airbag here and then uh yeah this is a very safe vehicle the shape actually helps a lot right cuz it’s it’s curved in all
Sides so you can you had an impact it kind of blows off either the top or bottom most surfaces are flat on most Vehicles so and this is a carbon composite material it’s a forged carbon fiber um just it’s pretty cool uh it’s you know Lamborghinis and Ferraris are
Made with the same process yeah that’s why I weigh 1700 lb exactly the outside is fiberglass though so it’s still easy to repair if you ever you know just like bumped it or something okay this is cool you’re the only one to do this yeah we’re left foot braking we’re
Get a little throttle on the straightaway here yeah I mean it’s so light it’s got to handle and accelerate very well this probably has manual brakes doesn’t it yeah Yep this prototype does yeah visibility is great I love the side window it’s just a lot of fun it’s very fun
Yeah and as a prototype vehicle I mean you know you expect some clunkiness some rattles some nvh things but I’ve driven some other three- wheel Vehicles we won’t name the brands this feels very nice it’s cool what’s the track width in the front it’s pretty wide right 88 in oh my go wow
There’s a lot of stability here it’s pretty wide but it makes it extremely stable and uh nice yeah feels good yeah all right we’ll do one more lap and then we’ll park it and we’ll look at some nerdy details you guys get the idea Here feel like people are always surprised at how stable it is but sure it’s a it’s a tripod right so you’re never really lose traction on any one of the wheels yep so yeah my only concerns thus far are potholes in Michigan with the rear wheel
But but you got some sidewall on there and then just parking this outside I’m going to get so much attention it’s going to be ridiculous you will will this is not a car for the shy we’ll say that much cool well thanks that was awesome
So two ways to open the door you can press the screen or use the button right here and you can just pop both doors like that how cool is that we’re just going to cruise down Woodward one day with the doors open at the Dream Cruise
And that’ll just be a whole video on the aptera one one day all right so I think we’ve what isn’t production in this interior because there’s quite a bit you kind of gave me a list when we were messaging yeah of course uh so what’s really nice is this
One has the kind of production intense seating position right so you know you notice the head room and leg room and all that um this is only single density foam it’ll be multi-density foam in production so it’ll be a little more comfortable um the wheel will you know
Go up and down as well sure um and yeah we have so these screens are more appropriately sized to the cabin and the center console is totally redesigned so I’m sure you can pop up some renders on our site but it’s you know made of aluminum it has really nice cup holders
And some netted storage so totally different than this one yeah this looks very like King Ranch F-150 right now that’s all pineapple leather but it’s it’s very hard to work with so we moved away from that this prototype has thousands of miles that you guys have
Put on it so driven it a lot really have and uh you can see the plus and minus is actually recycled skateboard decks and that that’s the same in production oh yeah that’s right neat all right cool it’s kind of cool some you even have the grip tape on
There yep yeah I ride electric unicycles and we tend to put the same grip tape on our our pedals right so well yeah if you want to come see our interior evaluation module to get a feel for some of the changes um you’ll see the screen is you know more appropriately
Sized to come over this yeah I’ll walk in there yeah just getting in the gamma prototype versus the others is so much easier like inass is just I don’t if you guys lower the seating position or raise this a little bit change the the entry point the Ingress but right so screen size
About production sizing airbag shape and everything cool so 12.8 in display and then you know this one’s raised a little higher and a little smaller so it’s appropriately sized then you can adjust the the wheel up and down in this one as well Okay cool so that that’s just right there nice
Yep neat visor yeah lots of Headroom I mean inside when you’re in it it’s very spacious yeah yeah it’s a it’s a larger vehicle inside than you would think um and it’s it’s long how long is it totally what are the dimensions we can always thr question it’s it’s long it is
Long yeah it’s I think it’s like as long as a Prius it’s not like long long yeah yeah it’s not like Miata size but it’s not like you know something massive that wouldn’t fit in a garage cool all right let’s let’s look at some other prototypes too and we’ll kind of track
The progression and then you’re going to show me some solar panels yeah you can do that this uh this front piece is just so cool um it’s very strong you say and we’ll look at a more production looking one here so super strong can handle hail impact um they don’t know about
Sledgehammers you guys done the sledgehammer test done a sledgehammer I don’t know about that that’s fine but uh very efficient solar panels um very strong and very lightweight too so kind of an an automotive composite solar panel which is very neat curved of course yeah curved two AIS Automotive uh
Glass solar panel so it’s really never been done before it’s actually stronger than most windshields so wow wow so this will be here on the front yeah the solar here on the dash invisible but that’s yeah solar on the dash too and then it’ll be across the whole vehicle okay
Sweet 189 cells on the production vehicle all right and there will be eventually three different range apas offered was it like 250 400 600,000 600,000 okay four okay all right and then a th mile range one that’s crazy that’s amazing and the reason that is is just because this design is so efficient
Skinny tires very little aerodynamic drag super lightweight that’s the key to success yep yeah wow let’s let’s hold that solar panel let’s pick it up show show people what it looks like you’ve got some suspension components here too the suspension is pretty neat yeah um but I mean yeah this
Is glass believe it or not so wow pretty cool like you so that is neat ultra thin yeah that’s awesome this is just a test panel but it gives you the the idea for how light these are and they’ll be pretty easy to swap out if you ever needed to
Sure yeah how is uh servicing and maintenance and you know warranty work how’s that going to work out just kind of someone will come out to you or yeah we’re we’re hoping to partner with a mobile repair company like a repair Smith kind of thing um for the vehicles
So that’ll be you know really great um but this really won’t need much maintenance you know once it’s out on the road I mean it has almost no moving Parts it’s all electric you know it’s just probably you know put in some wiper fluid now again and you know rrap it
Every 10 15 years and you can change the color too so that’s kind of fun that’s right there are some uh coolant routings through the body to keep everything cool that’s kind of integrated in with the the body structure uh to keep the battery pack at the right temperature um
Can you explain how that works a little bit yeah I mean there’s two different you know cooling system right one for cabin one for all the other components so they they’re all routed in there they actually come out the back so where you see the grill on these prototypes is is
The the exhaust okay all right say um we’re going to be showing off more of the production intent uh cooling system in the next few months so you’ll see some cool videos on our Channel about it more in detail all right but it’s pretty neat just app ha on YouTube yeah awesome
Um yeah so over here is like part of the solar area so you know do all our own solar R&D and build all the solar panels right here which is super exciting so that’s where we do our hail gun tests okay um these are you know cell layups
So these are like the different this is the hatch so you can see there’s the amount of cells in the hatch okay wow that’s a big area so this is the roof um and then yeah if we want to do a steel ball drop test yeah let’s do it one that
Cracked the Cyber truck okay I guess it’s lined up so here you go just sweet oh yeah nice and Hefty just drop it in and then you can pull this when you’re ready oops all right I’ll pull it out give it a pull okay nice no problem you got different
Levels down there somewhere there it is um NE extremely strong yeah you know handles a hail impact at 90 mph 1 in ice ball so okay it’s pretty awesome yeah we’ve had some some ice balls like this in Michigan last few years my wife Highlander actually got quite a bit of
Hail damage yeah and not not really going a scratch we’ve done it on this one probably a 100 times that’s the same same material so you you’ll be totally good sweet awesome that was even higher yeah cool it’s it’s pretty cool Innovation yeah it’s it’s it’s just it’s
Good to see the strength of it yeah what else you got H I can show you some battery cells yeah battery modules over here so yeah this whole thing there’s a a Stringer it’s called over there that high volume machine that strings all the cells together um this is a laminator
Which laminates all the different materials together okay so we have all that in house here’s just another panel sweet so and you guys have about what is it now about 40,000 pre-orders a little bit more 46,000 46,000 pre-orders all right so yeah right now this Warehouse
Is you know looking pretty empty we have our solar line here up and running and we can produce about 10 panels a day um but really A lot of the engineering is done in Italy now you know we have uh a lot of great Partners over there and
They’re working on the body the frame the suspension we have people in South Korea ctns they’re working on our battery packs they’re going to make the first 200 packs fully in South Korea then ship them here and then all their equipment’s going here too so this building will get busy pretty soon here
If you want to get a idea of what uh the forge carbon fiber looks like here’s a piece okay from CPC out of Italy and the fiberglass so just so you can kind of see what it looks like it’s pretty cool yeah that looks like inside of hoods of
Lamborghinis and stuff you know it’s cool cuz it’s very strong very light it looks like it’s injection molded but it’s not you know it’s just a gooey resin that gets pressed and heated up and turns into parts that have you know screw holes or fittings that can all be
Right embedded in the part cool that’s awesome yeah and then over here is like our our battery display so if you ever held a cell in an EV here’s here’s what they’re like y um put them in a module and you end up with these are all different prototypes
Throughout the years different ways to hold the cells all that end up with something like this with that’s sonically welded so it’s really easy to manufacture quick so just go sweet and solders them all together um but there’s only six of these for the 400 mile range
And I mean you can you can like lift them so you know it’s in terms of for parability it’s pretty exciting that’s awesome like I don’t know if you want to hold it it’s a little heavy but you could doing some arms lately oh yeah wow
I mean it’s still heavy but it is heavy but like not B you can’t do that with other packs cuz they’re they’re so much bigger right y yeah that’s just down to the efficiency that’s awesome you can just yeah put on the there we go it’s
Not light but no that’s cool to it’s cool to hold the battery pack yeah the whole battery is like 520 lbs the whole thing including the power distribution unit everything so what a departure from everything else just getting heavier it’s nice to see something that’s actually lightweight actually efficient exactly um I know
We’re going to kind of go out of order here but here’s uh what a cell looks like right so this is what the solar panels start with okay so if you want to hold it it’s very thin wow it’s actually extremely fragile so if you want to just
Like this one’s already broken so if you want to like just try to break it a little more and see how easy it is to snap it’s so easy oh yeah it’s very brutal it’s like y sure so you got to do is encapsulate it and make
It not do that right sure it has to be very strong and it is so here’s a string of cells okay so see we have our our machine over there which will you know basically solder all the cells together really quickly it’s called a Stringer okay and then you get strings then you
Lay them up with our process our secret process put some glass over top some special secret glass and then you get the solar panel sweet wow so they look cool too they do yeah in in production these will all be kind of silver okay so they’ll be tin coated they look really
Neat neat oh man cool this is so exciting well thanks again for the tour of course we’ll get to drive a more production ready vehicle in the future but uh thanks Chris for taking us around this was this was awesome no problem be sure to check out apter’s YouTube channel you’ve got lots
More content coming out uh and you know you’ve got some more videos coming out pretty much on a regular basis I’ve been following you guys for quite a while I remember back in like 2009 2010 I was at the Detroit Auto Show and I got to sit in one of the early prototypes
Back like round one and then you guys kind of came back and gave gave everything another shot uh starting what like 2019 2018 yeah we really launched in you know uh 2020 okay cool awesome well excited I wish you guys all the best in the next you know year or two
And uh hopefully we’ll get some vehicles to drive some more vehicles to drive here soon yeah thanks so much yeah thanks for watching guys we’ll see you guys in the next one let’s go walk you around this one more time and uh feel free to ask any questions in the
Comments I’ll throw some info in the description some more specs and stuff is all the lighting on this kind of in production form yeah definitely looks similar to this um slight changes here and there all around but okay these tail are absolutely insane they’re just stunning
Yeah wow what tire size do you know they’re just standard 16in tires okay yeah and they’re all the same size so you just go to any tire shop and get Replacements or witer tires or whatever how uh difficult are the wheel covers to pull off uh so we announced like there’s
A latch under here the front part swivels up and then you have access to the full wheel cool all right so repair replace Flats all that stuff super easy cool and in production there’ll be 5 in of ground clearance under those Yep they’re a little all around more like
More shaped like that okay all right for better approach and departure cool y wow well we’ll get some testing done on Michigan poth roads sounds great let you know how that goes all right guys thanks again for watching we’ll see you in the next video take care and uh go follow
App if you’re interested in more and uh what are reservations these days 100 bucks yeah $100 um you could have a referral code and it’ be $70 hey all right we’ll throw that in the in the description that’s awesome very cool well thanks again for your time we’ll
See you guys in the next one take care
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