The question of range has historically been a fraught one for electric vehicles. Although the daily drive of the average Australian is around 40km, the idea of having a car that rarely needs to be plugged in, or can be driven from city to city in a country the size of Australia, is undeniably attractive.
Aptera – a startup named for a Greek word meaning “wingless,” and which has recently reincarnated from the ashes of a decade-old liquidation – thinks it can make a vehicle that has not 600km, not 800km, not even 1,000km, but 1,600km range.
The Californian EV startup, whose goal is to create a high-efficiency, three-wheeled road vehicle, first came to media attention in 2006 when it unveiled a hybrid diesel-electric vehicle originally called the “typ-1” and later the “2e” that it said could get 200 miles per gallon (which equates to 1.18 litres for 100km in Australian terms).
Due to a number of factors, however, the company began to fold in 2009, eventually returning pre-order deposits which it had taken from enthusiastic believers.
Now, Aptera is back – with a great deal of gung-ho, and a dream to bring back its three-wheeler, this time as a purely battery electric vehicle, with that so far mythological 1,600km range.
Original founders Chris Anthony, Steve Fambro, and Michael Johnson (the first two now CEOs of Aptera take two, with Johnson listed as “co-founder”) explain how they plan to do it.
To read the full version of this story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated site, The Driven, click here…
