Aptera announces 7,000 reservations and fresh capital
The US-based Aptera Motors has closed a Series A funding round of four million dollars (around 3.3 million euros) and reports more than 7,000 reservations received for its three-wheeled solar electric car, which has been available for pre-order since December 2020.
Among the investors from the funding round, Californian manufacturer Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates stands out, who wants to support Aptera in production, among other things. The eponymous Aptera is a solar electric car that is advertised as having ranges of up to 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometres) and is said to consist of only four main parts. We had already summarised the technical specifications known so far when the car was unveiled.
Aptera says it has combined the latest findings from the fields of lightweight construction, aerodynamics, cooling, material science and process technology to develop the futuristic-looking two-seater – and offers to equip up to three square metres of the exterior surface with solar cells, which can generate energy for up to an additional 46 miles (around 74 kilometres), the latest announcement says once again. The company plans to charge between 25,900 and 46,900 US dollars. Starting this year, an unspecified special edition will be delivered. At least, that was the talk at the presentation of the model in December.
According to the manufacturer, the Aptera will be the first in a series of “environmentally friendly vehicles” that the company plans to offer for private and commercial use in the future. Aptera also announced that it had moved into a new manufacturing and design facility in San Diego’s Sorrento Valley earlier this month. The facility is part of a 60,500-square-foot campus and is expected to focus on 3D printing processes, composites and the development of battery technologies. Aptera says it is also already on the lookout for locations for production facilities.
Rumour has it that the debut model will use Tesla’s Supercharger technology. The portal InsideEVs noticed the similarity in a picture of the charging plug. It fits that Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm later that the Superchargers are already being made accessible to “other electric vehicles”. However, there is no official confirmation that this is Aptera.
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