A few days ago, Aptera released a monthly update. Most importantly, the company has unveiled its factory, which is an important sign that the company is really moving towards production. Aptera also unveiled the next (and third) phase of vehicle prototypes, the Gamma, which is pretty close to production. An interesting tidbit is that Aptera is trying to use the Tesla charging connector instead of CCS, which would be another very Tesla-esque move for the company.
The new factory
Tesla, a larger and more established company, Aptera had to do what Tesla did for its first factory: use an existing building. In Tesla’s case, the NUMMI building was large and empty, but it took a lot of work to get it ready to build the Model S. In Aptera’s case, they had to take a building full of offices and tear out the offices, which involved a lot of work in terms of both demolishing and getting the floor finished.
Production equipment is on order and Aptera plans to start scaling production later in 2022. Once scaled, the large factory will focus on final assembly, while some of the smaller spaces the company has rented or purchased will focus on building sub-assemblies, such as battery packs or powertrains.
Sub-assemblies and cars in the manufacturing process will be propelled by Red Viking on small autonomous vehicles, allowing for a more flexible assembly line rather than fixed lines that will cost a lot of money to change when needed in the future. And if something goes wrong, the little carts can leave the line and take the car for special work if needed, then line up again when the vehicle is ready to continue production.
The big challenge the company says it licked was preparing the floor to allow these autonomous carts to go anywhere.
Charging, Tesla connector
Charging is where the biggest news was. Aptera’s main concern is that charging infrastructure in the United States is really lacking and that won’t change much in the short term. Aptera not only thinks about charging stations, but also about the grid itself and the way utilities think about power. Adding vehicles becomes a challenge.
The company is also very dissatisfied with the CCS and J1772 connectors. “It wasn’t elegant at all,” Chris Anthony, one of the company’s co-CEOs, said of the J1772 connector. He says the Tesla connector was a lot nicer, while DC fast charging got even clunkier and weirder with CCS and CHAdeMO. Steve Fambro agreed and said they are not happy with those connection standards.
The bottom line: Aptera thinks the United States should adopt the Tesla connector, which tells you what it’s likely to do. But I’d stop with what other outlets say, because they didn’t quite say they’re going to use the Tesla connector, or that they want to. They just think it’s better. What they will eventually do may run into practical difficulties as infrastructure expansions embrace CCS.
Other technical updates
As we knew before, Aptera gets its hub motors from Elaphe. Along with Aptera, Elaphe is also preparing for mass production to meet the general production needs. So whole factories are being built and expanded in Europe to supply these important parts to Aptera. But most importantly, that process is underway and not just theoretical.
Given the big target the company has (1000 miles on 100 kWh), it’s important to note that Elaphe is still working on tweaking the final Aptera engine design for maximum efficiency.
Work on the battery modules and packs, based on 2170 cells with liquid cooling, is also well underway. The first vehicles to hit the road will have a usable capacity of 41 kWh (which gives a range of approximately 400 miles), followed by the 250 kWh vehicles. Then the 600-mile and 1000-mile cars go into production. EVE Energy has worked with the company to build cells that work best for Aptera’s car.
Chassis development also continues to progress. Teams tortured the vehicles and tried to destroy them. They slammed the vehicle into curbs so hard that they ripped to hit the rim, and they don’t want the vehicle or the suspension itself to collapse under such stresses.
Hubcaps (the fenders over the front tires) were a major point of criticism for the company in its videos. They are large, they give the vehicle a wide, wide stance, and they tend to be quite loose and wobbly in the air, wobble and wobble on the street. The company showed a video showing the latest improved design, simulating different speeds and vibration frequencies. It will now no longer vibrate like it did until it reached over 200 miles per hour. The vehicle has a maximum speed of 110 MPH, so in the real world that won’t be an issue.
As we know, the wiring on the Aptera should be very simple compared to most vehicles. Sticking with that philosophy, the company has partnered with an established company to create the most efficient harnesses possible. They showed a video of the low voltage test bench with which they program firmwares into the various controllers.
The vehicle has no keys. It has RFID key card, bluetooth and “tap” method of access.
Solar cells are a bigger challenge than most would think. Solar power standing still on a home or business is one thing, but something that has to deal with the vibrations and other harshnesses acting on a vehicle is quite another. Aptera is still very secretive about this (as was the case with my visit there in November) because the company has done a lot of research on it.
The Gamma Development Vehicle
The shape of the vehicle is constantly changing. The shape of the fenders/wheel covers has been changed to better suit the vehicle. The same has been done with the real wheel skirt, creating less drag on that tire. The rear of the vehicle has also been reduced in thickness to further reduce aerodynamic drag. Despite the vehicle being made larger for its occupants, Aptera has achieved a lower drag coefficient than the Alpha design.
The first Gamma vehicles have not yet been built, but the design is ready to build this penultimate version of the vehicle, but we can expect it in a month or so.
The interior has also been redesigned. The controversial wheel choice (a yoke) is also accompanied by a number of other changes. The center console will be modular and you can choose different things for different parts of the console. The interior design process used VR for testing, giving people a chance to see what it’s like before it’s built, helping to avoid space and other issues like the Alpha design.
Aptera gave more details on why it chose the yoke wheel. One reason was they wanted to be futuristic, but they think their take on a yoke has better ergonomics than others we’ve seen. It also makes the vision system (cameras instead of mirrors) work better and safer.
Does Aptera offer anything for those with Oculus/Meta headsets? They didn’t say it, but I’d like to see that.
Finally, we’ll see four additional solar cells on the hood, and others we don’t know about yet, elsewhere on the vehicle. The available solar power will therefore increase!
There is more discussed but you must watch the video
A number of other topics were discussed in the update, especially in the Q&A section of the presentation. I can’t cover them all here, but I’ll embed the video below.
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Featured Image: What Aptera’s factory will look like with equipment on order. Image by Aptera.
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