Submitted by
mmcvey on February 5, 2009
Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009
Location: Vista, CA
Section: scitech
List price: $500 down; $25,000-$45,000 total.
With production officially starting on October, Aptera handed out spec sheets of this finely crafted automobile clearly inspired by Jacques Cousteau at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference occurring in Long Beach.
I'm not going to bore you with the details of how long the lithium-ion battery lasts (if it's so green, try dumping some of that lithium-ion "back" into nature...), or how fast this space-aged vehicle is listed at (0-60 in 9ish seconds), but I will tell you that the US Federal safety peeps have this particular vehicle listed as a motorbike. Like a moped. Or a Harley. That's quite a margin for being not much larger than my folks' old Gremlin, which had as many gears as this car has tires (3, by the way... it was supposed to have 4...).
The other thing I'll tell you is the price. $500 down. Not bad. $25,000 to $45,000. That's a little steep and a little wide ranging. Gotta wonder what the options are going to be. "Fourth wheel: $20,000..."
Now, I'm all for innovation (that's about 50% untrue), and I'm all for being responsible with our knowledge and not abusing our planet (I'm not green necessarily), but can we make an electric three-wheeler that can off-road? Slap a battery on a Polaris or a Kawasaki and let me jump the dunes or something. Rig up a golf cart with some spikes and let's retread the back nine. What kind of turning radius does that car have? How useful will it actually be?
It's like Back to the Future II...
http://WEport.net/view.php?id=10058
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