An intriguing image!

Kerbe

Kerbe

Well-Known Member
Aptera just released this image of a rolling chassis, viewed from the middle and looking forward. The suspension and steering components are in place but (if the fact that the orange power cables are coiled and one can see straight through where the motor should be mounted) but the motor and battery modules are not. Aptera appears to be moving forward, one assembly step at a time!
chassis.webp
 
I used to work on the assembly line in Wixom, MI, building Lincolns and Thunderbirds. However, cars destined for "customers" with surnames like "Ford," weren't manufactured on the assembly line. Instead, there was a guy who would come by and take parts from our assembly-line supply to his own special room. There, he would hand-build an entire Lincoln Continental (he only built those cars, AFAIK) all by himself. I was amazed to realize there was someone who knew that much about those cars.

It's great to see Aptera finally transitioning from a single, hand-built EV to the assembly line they've been planning for so long.

Thanks to Aptera's suppliers providing larger and more complex components, there are fewer separate parts required to assemble a 2026 Aptera in Carlsbad than a 1969 Lincoln in Wixom, so Apera's modern assembly line will be much shorter. I and 50,000 reservation holders would enjoy seeing a time-lapse video showing the full process when Aptera's assembly line begins working to fill that backlog.
 
brianc35 said:
oh wow, you have a reservation? i didn't know you were considering one of these.
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If you use someone's referral code a reservation costs only $70 and, because California law requires such funds to be held in escrow, it's fully-refundable. Need a referral code? Just use the QR code to the left... ;)
 
brianc35 said:
oh wow, you have a reservation? i didn't know you were considering one of these.
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Sorry, I wasn't clear about that. I would have jumped in line to buy an Aptera back in 2000 when I acquired the first Honda Insight in Michigan (S/N #221). However, I'm now doubting the Aptera be the ideal ride for Michigan winters. I still wanna see a time-lapse video of the Aptera production line in full-swing.

It's gonna take some large people with long crowbars to pry my fingers off the steering wheel of my MINI Cooper SE.
 
Kerbe said:
Why is that? The prototype seemed to do very well on the snow and ice in Switzerland - and I'm sure the production vehicle will improve upon that one's abilities...
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The way the snow could pack up inside the rear spats on my gen-1 Insights makes me suspect the same thing could happen with the faired-in wheels of the Aptera. Once, the right-rear spat left the car when the rear cavities were packed with snow and I hit a pothole.

1764946778612.webp
 
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