Air conditioning

[Romeo Salcedo]

Air conditioning, I am in Hawaii and would like to know if I sit in the Aptera with the air condition on in the parking lot, how much electric power will I use if I stay for one hour. My Aptera will be all solar.

[Gabriel Kemeny]

That kind of info is probably not yet available.

[Joshua Rosen]

Someone from a hot climate should be able to give a reasonable estimate based on the consumption of their current EV. I’ve posted some numbers for heater power consumption based on my Tesla which should give an approximation of what the Aptera’s heater will do. My AC numbers wouldn’t shed any light on the probable consumption for someone in Hawaii, where I live the AC has almost no effect on range but those of you who live in the South and have EVs should have a good idea about how much energy the AC will use in a hot climate.

[John Malcom]

I drive a Tesla Model 3 and live in FL. Still probably apples to oranges as the Tesla has a different engineering approach to air conditioning and a larger volume to cool. Battery architecture is different as will be Battery control systems.

To avoid speculation suggest we wait until Aptera publishes the actual data for Aptera AC testing. As Gabriel states in his post above, that information is not available yet.

[N. Bruce Nelson]

Roman, I have a background in AC and worked as designer and supplier of AC for several early EVs including the Ford THINK! city car, and numerous military applications where power saving in extreme conditions was essential. I have the following statement from Aptera:

“Energy consumption from the A/C can have a significant impact on a hot day. Our well-insulated body helps but A/C can be an energy hog. You could see 10 to 20% less range on really hot days. We have a fan to extract the hot air from the cabin that uses solar energy to keep the interior cool on a hot day. More exact figures will be shared over the next few months closer to the finalization of our production-intent vehicle once we have undergone more testing!”

I can also tell you that Aptera is designed to perform well in ambient temperatures up to 125 F (about 52 C) I have some educated guesses that I could share regarding the tech but I can assure you that a lot of small measures add up to superior, and energy efficient performance, even in extreme conditions.
N. Bruce Nelson
Aptera Brand Ambassador / Communications Committee co-chair

[kerbe2705]

Although it’s comparing apples to oranges… My Honda Clarity PHEV has aa electrical AC system (not a heat pump). With sweltering south Mississippi summer temps in the upper 90°s, humidity at 100%, no breeze and a blazing sun in a cloudless sky, parked in my car with the AC set to 74° I’ll lose about 1/10th of a mile of range in 20 minutes.

I do this weekly (parking outdoors for 20 minutes) as I’m required to wait that amount of time after receiving my allergy shots. In cold weather, the resistance heat drops the range the same amount, but in 15 minutes.

[Curtis Cibinel]

A Honda Clarity is 44 mpge (about 700 wh/m). This would make your ac be drawing about 210w which seems low. Now given the aptera is 7x as energy efficient and you assume the ac draw is more like 500w (probably more reasonable) then it would be 5 miles of range per hour of stationary ac (1.6 miles of range for 20 minutes). Even if it’s twice that it really isn’t that big of problem. If it’s sunny and the aptera is gaining 700w from solar it’s going to be close to your solar gains to keep cool.

[kerbe2705]

The Clarity PHEV is rated at 110 mpge, not 44…

[Curtis Cibinel]

I stand corrected, but that means the parent is asserting the ac for 20 min is averaging under 80w which is definitely low. At the end of the day with full solar of your parked with the ac running your likely getting a comparable amount of charge to your draw at worst. Unless your planning to sleep in the vehicle with the ac blasting 24 hours per day for weeks the loss of range (if any after solar) seems negligible. Obviously this has a lot of variables in relies both inside and out temperatures and insulation but from discussions on tesla redit it appears ac uses a lot less power than winter heating (which is still several days of use – far more with measures to minimize use).

[Tim Dean]

The composite body is a natural insulator. Easy to condition during charging & low power to maintain while in use.

[Peter Jorgensen]

500-1000W is common for most EVs to run either the heater or AC to maintain temperature differences of 30-50 degrees. It will be higher at first if you are starting with a hot cabin.

These are all wild guesses from me but should be in the ballpark:
If you camp overnight with the AC running and a 25kwh battery it will use about 20%-30% of your battery

In other words, a 25kwh battery will last about 24-48 hours. A 40 kwh battery will last 40-80 hours, and a 60 kwh battery would last 3-6 days. If you’re stuck in one of those rare Hawaiian snow storms in 10°F weather, a 100kwh battery would keep you warm from a full charge for about a week.

[Patrick Liebknecht]

I would imagine they will have a “camp” mode that will not drain the battery too quickly