You may have noticed the firestorm of alarm surrounding Aptera's decision to delete DCFC from its Launch Edition vehicle: Well, they've changed their minds!
Considering Aptera's shaky financial position, it's obvious why they couldn't afford to disappoint the thousands of anxious people on their waiting list. But can Aptera add features without increasing the price again? Will the vehicle cost less than the newly discounted Model 3?
I'm not so certain that their position is all that shaky: Yes, they need to continue to raise capital but - for the time being - they have enough money to keep the doors open and the lights on. They have the funding necessary to build the planned small fleet of Delta prototypes and to put them through environmental, usability and crash testing - and expect to have them rolling this coming summer. They've already begun milling the steel dies necessary for CPC to forge the structural and body panels and have nearly all of their other suppliers lined-up and ready to go. I'm neither a Pollyanna nor a Fanboy but I don't see Aptera's team making any glaring mistakes and, aside from them not having billions of dollars in the bank, I don't see any indicators of portending doom.
I pulled out my reservation. No drivers assist on the Launch Edition would mean waiting another 3-5 years for my original order. Time to move on.
I believe the co-CEO said "probably won't have Safety Pilot", not dismissed the possibility entirely. The issue is that they haven't yet found a supplier for that equipment - but they could contract with one tomorrow... Yes, even if Aptera is fully-funded tomorrow it will take at least a year for production to begin and, at 20K units per year, two years beyond that to fulfill the 40K+ reservations. If I needed a new vehicle tomorrow, waiting on an Aptera wouldn't be an option - but I don't so, for my needs, hanging around and observing the process is a hobby-like activity!
I placed the order for my 2000 Honda Insight (#221) the day after I saw the prototype at the 1999 Detroit auto show in January and then waited more than a year for delivery. I placed the order for my 2020 MINI Cooper SE as soon as my dealer allowed and then waited only 51 weeks for that delivery (when it finally arrived it was a 2021 model). I learned that waiting for a car you really want has an unexpected and not entirely unwelcome consequence: it slows down the headlong passage of time. OTOH, can't believe I've been driving my wonderful MINI Electric for more than 2 years now. Time flies when you're having fun. Another thing: for a long time I was the only person posting on InsideEVs' MINI Cooper SE forum. Sound familiar? Keep up the good work, I read all your news items.
Seven years ago I leased a Golf because VW said they'd have the Golf GTE PHEV in three years. They did not, so I started trying to find a Volt. After a year and a half I gave up and decided to find a Clarity: Six months later I found one in the next state over... I'm not sure what I'll do if Aptera doesn't make it: I can't afford (and don't really want) a Tesla but my state has almost no CCS DCFC infrastructure and our NEVI plan has six years of "research" before they even THINK about building the first CCS charging station. There are too many places that I need to go that a non-Tesla won't reach - or would reach but from which I couldn't return...
Pretty sure launch would have level 2 (Speed and lane keep assist). Maybe you should look for a model 3 with FSD? The whole point of Aptera is efficiency, and range, and solar. Nothing else is close...
At this point Aptera is saying that SafetyPilot won't be ready in time for the Launch Edition but that it can be ordered and installed at a later date. It will be a vision-only (no radar) Level 2 system.
