EVCast Interview with Aptera

By Eric Boyd on January 20, 2009 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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EV Cast: Interview with Aperta. Bo and Ryan got to talk to Marques McCammon, CMO, and later Steve Fambro, cofounder and CTO of Aptera. The interview lasts about 23 minutes, so it's a quick listen. Most notable: Aptera will be at TED, offering test drives! Further highlights are over the fold.

60,000 people on mailing list
10% of deposit customers have converted their deposits to non-refundable - after only 1 week of that program
Front wheel drive decision made over a year ago - and they have been testing variations for a long time. Decision to let it go public and put it in vehicle was made for awesome performance reasons.
They have also improved ingress/egress - getting in and out of vehicle.
Electric roll-down windows are actually simpler and weigh less than manual!
Lithium Iron Phosphate & pixie dust batteries - proprietary
Will use internal combustion engine for range-extended version (not external combustion engine like a Stirling)
Crash test development is ongoing - results usually not published until right at launch
Participating at TED in Long Beach! Potential customers will be doing test drives!!!
They have enough money to get through to production. But they are also putting together another round of funding. They see their vehicle as being an easy sell in a down economy.
They plan to win the Automotive X Prize

You can read a complete transcript over at gas 2.0 Also note that the "Aptera 2e" is the new name for the "Aptera Typ-1e".