We've been busy finalizing our development vehicle design and now it's time to BUILD!
From windshields to license plate holders we've been finalizing everything Aptera. That means releasing parts internally to build or to vendors to supply to us. The effort is moving along nicely, even with COVID delays, and all of our structural components are now released along with our suspension. We are now knee-deep in electrical engineering while finishing up the interior, exterior covers, and our lighting systems. It is exciting to see everything coming together and parts being built for our first new vehicles.
Our composite molds are moving along at light speed now. This is the mold that will be used to build our primary lower structure, or “tub”. This will hold the seats on the inside and the batteries below.
And our efforts to lighten our suspension significantly have been more than successful. We’ve reduced the weight on our metal components by 50% or more.
We’ve also been working through our electrical and control systems. With weight being a major concern, we designed these custom control boards to manage everything from the lights to the heater in the Aptera. They are distributed throughout the vehicle and allow us to use a very lightweight wiring harness to power all our devices. A typical automotive wiring harness could weigh over 50lbs and we cut that weight down to 20lbs!
And with over 4,000 hours of testing on our development solar systems, it is GREAT to see our first full solar body panels coming together. This is what will provide the Aptera will almost 700w of solar charging power! On a sunny day, this can get you over 44 extra miles of range just from parking in the sun.
Things are coming together quickly now and the next month will be action-packed for Aptera. Stay tuned for updates, surveys, and vehicle launch info as the summer progresses. And thank you ALL for the continued support! We can’t wait to roll the World Most Efficient Vehicle out to you ALL!!!
*BONUS peek – What could these be for???
