In typical Aptera style, the company’s cofounders posted a video update detailing the organization’s progress towards putting a solar electric vehicle into mass production. You can watch the entire webinar, which launched live this morning and delivers a wealth of news including grants, finance, tooling abroad, and solar growth, in its entirety below. Here is the most recent.
Aptera Motors, one of the few businesses on the planet working to make a practical (and perhaps scalable) solar EV available to the general public, is not only propelled by the sun but also by innovative ideas. The startup Aptera continues to be refreshingly transparent about its development and the challenges it still faces despite mainly depending on its supporters and other financial sponsors to finally achieve production.
Chris Anthony, Aptera’s co-founder and co-CEO, presents weekly updates on developments from the company’s YouTube channel, that are occasionally supplemented by press releases or livestream events. The Launch Version solar EV was unveiled by the startup’s co-founders in January via a livestream, and they were open in conveying that manufacturing remained an achievable but far-off goal since a minimum of $50 million in extra funding was still needed.
Since then, the business has introduced the Accelerator Programme, which uses crowdfunding investments from reservation holders to obtain production slots for the Launch Edition solar EVs and aids Aptera in purchasing initial production equipment that will be repaid via a newly awarded grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC).
The Accelerator Programme, which has so far raised more than $14 million, has recently been extended by Aptera. The co-founders of Aptera updated their devoted and expanding fans on YouTube this morning with information on the Accelerator programme, fresh funding options, and the development of solar EV tooling abroad.
The most recent Aptera update conveys development and hope
The hour-long update from Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, co-founders of Aptera, was full of reason, hope, and most of all, thankfulness. Last week, the two gentlemen travelled to Italy to inspect some of the die moulds that were being tooled by the manufacturing partner CPC Group.
The Aptera sides and doors, as seen in the photographs above, are already constructed and will ultimately be filled with a carbon composite product that has been compared to Play-Doh in consistency. The structural elements of the solar EV are created by heating and pressing that material between stamps.
According to Aptera, the procedure generates less than 1% of trash, which is subsequently recycled back into the production process. As garbage or a stamped component, the material itself is capable of being reused as many as five times.
Aptera’s founders claim that with routine maintenance, the forthcoming tools may live long enough to allow the business make one million solar EVs. The tools have been built to build over 100,000 pieces, they claim. Let’s hope that comes to pass!
Investors in Aptera, notably the Accelerator Programme, provided funding for a portion of the tooling process. This permitted some purchases that are now beginning to be repaid by the previously mentioned CEC award.
Despite this, the founders of Aptera were extremely candid about the necessity for additional investment to achieve scaled production and discussed some of the steps the company is taking to achieve this. Besides the 1,000+ SEV slots that are still open in Accelerate, Aptera is looking for new grant opportunities, extra capital investments, and potentially debt financing for the production machinery.
Additionally, Aptera said today that it has formally filed its application for the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Programme after completing hundreds of pages of paperwork. The founders stated at today’s update that they should learn in the upcoming weeks whether Aptera has been given a “substantially complete” nod by the DOE, in which case it can begin investing in further machinery that will be approved for and financed by the loan programme.
The company plans to invest the roughly $50 million needed over the course of nine months as it scales, Therefore, the required funding does not have to be provided in one lump payment, but nonetheless, additional capital is required. Nevertheless, the company is making progress and is optimistic that the combination of ongoing financial investments and crowdfunding from reservation holders will be beneficial. Anthony said the following when speaking live on YouTube:
“We keep on raising money. It’s exciting to see that despite the turbulent times, people manage to find Aptera’s narrative and endorse the goal of solar transportation with their money, their reservations for the automobiles, and their investments. When you consider the market during some quite intriguing and unfavourable news periods, 14 million dollars in the last few months is actually a very positive development, in my opinion. The objectives that this automobile will accomplish for the globe are compelling, therefore we’re going to keep working towards manufacturing. Solar transportation is appealing. It’s a cause worth fighting for, and we’re thrilled that everyone has gotten behind it, making the world both more effective and better in general”.
Here are a few more upgrades that Aptera released today:
• Aptera keeps improving its solar panel tech for the SEV’s manufacturing version.
• Its most recent panels are easier to produce, more resilient, less reflecting, and have better surface finishes.
• The three motors in Aptera’s vehicles necessitate three different inverters.
• The firm is presently evaluating its own inverter technology and is thinking about moving away from the more expensive Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter in favour of the Silicon Carbide (SiC) utilised by many other automakers.
• The co-founders of Aptera claim that the SiC inverter’s advantages may not always outweigh its price.
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, respectively, are both currently under development because Aptera prefers to focus its UX on managing the battery and charging while leaving the navigation and entertainment to those who have previously mastered it. again, cost-cutting.
• The featured image up top is a rendering of the Aptera’s prospective off-road package. In the future, we’ll be sure to inquire for more specifics.
• Although Anthony stated that it is now a very low priority on the team’s to-do list, the team is actively discussing the use of the solar EV’s camera for security/Sentry Mode.
As it tries to snag that big fish investor, Aptera Motors predicts that it will have to further push back the start of manufacturing in order to get over its present financial hurdle. The co-founders stated that once the necessary finance is obtained, they anticipate starting up production in nine months.
The most recent Aptera update can be seen in its entirety here. With a $10,000 investment, you may reserve over 1,000 Launch Edition Apteras, or you can put only $70 down to go on the lengthier waitlist.
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