Full Charge at Purchase?

[soaringsam]

I bought another EV back in May and prior to my arrival at the dealer, it was plugged in to their level 2 charger and charged up to 80% state of charge as I had asked for. So, I am pretty sure you will be able to ask for your new Aptera to be charged up as much as you want.

[kerbe2705]

@Lane Costilow It’s pretty much the same as buying any ICE vehicle: They start you off with a full tank of fuel as a goodwill gesture. In some cases, they’ll deliver your new vehicle to your home or place of business.

When I purchased a PHEV, the dealership filled the tank AND charged the battery.

[Lane-Costilow]

Taking advice from both of you, I will “trust but verify”. I expect it
to be fully charged (or nearly so) but will check with Aptera to be sure.
Thanks, guys.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  Lane Costilow.

[dan-stevens]

Assuming its sitting outside for a week before you pick it up, it will likely have a completely full charge.

That’s the point of the car 🤣

[eddie-matejowsky]

I expect mine to be flat. Any cars which need to be transported (shipped in my case) should be shipped with minimal charge for safety. Seeing there is no dealer to charge it – I expect to head to the nearest plug or charger I can find.

[eddie-matejowsky]

Obviously not dead flat. Maybe 10-20% SOC. It could arrive in a container or it might need to drive on/off a car carrier ship under its own power. Hopefully wharfies know what they are doing.

I don’t know if the Aptera will automatically charge when placed in the sun. Charging/battery might be disabled during shipping.

[ROMAD]

If the Aptera DOESN’T charge when in the sun, then the touted up to 40 mi/day solar charging would be considered a scam. However, IIRC, there is software and hardware to control it to stop charging once the batteries reach a certain level.

[jesthorbjorn]

Any appliance that includes lithium ion batteries will ship with those batteries charged to 50-80% SOC to ensure the battery remains healthy during shipping and any intermediate storage. Generally EVs are no different in that regard.

If you are picking it up from the factory or some other intermediate agent, they may agree to top you up. Guess we will see about that.

The notion of the Aptera changing itself if stored in an exposed lot, is an interesting, new variable. Letting it charge itself to 100% and staying at that SOC for any length of time would be bad for the battery. I am sure there will be a plan to avert that foreseeable misfortune.

[steven-dempster]

What I find in the UK is it’s better with an electric car. Dealers are reluctant to give you a tank full of petrol but electricity is much cheaper. So every petrol car I’ve bought had a nearly empty tank, but every EV I’ve bought had a nearly full battery.

[Kamakiri]

Anywhere between 40% and 80% would be great to me since I’m nearby. I’d expect people who intend to ship to request something near 25-30% to get to the port (like National City)…or closer to 20% if it’s getting loaded directly via truck.

[john-malcom]

A lot of possible variability at this point since production is still sometime off and final plans not finalized for delivery.

I would “Expect” oh no a guess…. That the charge preferences would follow a normal distribution for those electing a choice, but most will accept what Aptera suggests for their type of delivery (After the required come to CA to pick it up timeframe). Aptera will decide what charge based on a number of factors to include type of delivery, type of transportation, battery capacity, time and cost to charge, capacity to charge a large number of vehicles. May also issue vouchers for local charging locations with emphasis on Tesla chargers.

[Knix]

In the beginning with low rate production, I don’t expect this to be a problem. Even at 40 LE per day, only abort 35 kW of charging power would be required to get half a charge into them, and the solar panels on the cars themselves would contribute almost 10 kW of that on average if parked out in the sun, perhaps more in summertime.

[eddie-matejowsky]

Are the new cells flat? I’m not sure if the cells come from eve (or whoever) with some charge in them. If so the newly packed modules may have useful charge already. I presume some sort of testing would be done involving some power in and out. Ideally they’d be fully charged to test the BMS cell management and cell balance.
I’m sure they have it figured out.

[eddie-matejowsky]

Aptera’s claim of up to 40 miles per day of solar charge and 100wH/mi means up to 4kWh per day. You’d need >5 days sun to add %50 SOC. Quite possible some will get that.