The first "Production Intent" body shell has arrived at Aptera headquarters in California. The black that you see is carbon fiber and the white is fiberglass: This will sit upon an aluminum chassis that holds the battery pack and to which the drive train is attached.
Wow, this is amazing and exciting information! I can't wait to see what the future holds for Aptera with this innovative technology.
A wider view, showing the "hood" panel, the two doors, a bottle of Windex and - behind the crate - the rear hatch structural panel.
I remember this scene from 2011, when the original Aptera Motors was shutting down. Chief engineer Tom Reichenbach is lying, exhausted, next to the last-ditch, 4-wheel mock-up that was too little, too late to save the company. It's great to see high-tech, carbon-fiber castings produced from megabuck molds that are the result of seriously advanced engineering--contrasted with mock-ups stuck together with bubblegum and bailing wire. I wonder if any of Aptera's engineering staff laid down on the floor next to the long-awaited, production-intent body shell, exhausted, but this time triumphantly exhausted?
Aptera employees appear to be giddy with the arrival of the first production-intent body shell. "OK, that's enough touchy-feely time. Everybody out! We have to get this baby on the road ASAP!" "What? I waited a long time for my turn--give me just a few more minutes!" More photos on Elektrek.
Aptera's latest YouTube video doesn't say anything encouraging, but the comments are mostly enthusiastic and positive, with few contributions from the usual trolls. What's holding up the production-intent prototype? Are Aptera's wiring engineers finding they need to keep adding more and more copper? Are the aluminum subframe and suspension components still in development? Can't they pull parts off the Gamma prototype to get the new shell on the road?
The purpose of these "pep-rally" videos is to keep Aptera before the public while pre-production work is going on behind the scene: Aptera usually produces one informative update video each month but, remember, they have to protect their intellectual property and we usually hear about things a month or two after they've happened. They tell us more than any other vehicle company has ever told the public, but what and when they tell us is entirely up to them. So far as we know, nothing is holding anything up - it's all moving ahead according to plan. The point of sending the PI shell to CA was to check that all the wiring and equipment connections fit - not to design the systems: They were designed years ago! Although the suspension has been finalized, the aluminum chassis - composed of both cast and extruded components - is still being refined and tested. The PI shell isn't "roadworthy" - it's lacking various internal steel reinforcements such as the roll cage and the A-pillar subframe that allows the door hinges to be attached. Gamma's parts are all "one-off" because it's a fiberglass mock-up - it has no internal chassis: The suspension and drivetrain are attached directly to its shell. Gamma's role was to "resemble" the production design as it stood at that time.
Here's a 45-minute discussion with Aptera CEO Chris Anthony. Among many other things, he shows off the Aptera's aerodyamics and the 14-inch in-wheel motors. I learned the 400-mile Launch Edition will weigh 2,200 lbs (maybe you already knew that).
Those aren't the actual motors: Elaphe is building a custom motor to Aptera's spec. Also, the weight is a guess: They haven't yet built a complete vehicle so they're estimating from digital models...
