Painting

[Leonard Diasio]

Hypothetical Question here: Would you be willing to pay extra for a factory paint job?

I would, depending on how much is involved. But $1,500 seems like a real bargain.

[Nathan Hubbard]

Setting up a paint booth in a factory is a hugely expensive and complicated affair. I think it’s safe to say that they (Aptera) don’t want to deal with that if they are talking about using wraps.

[Leonard Diasio]

If all willing purchasers chip in a little cash, the cost of a paint booth can be amortized over many people. This would make financing such an operation more lucrative.

[kerbe2705]

At 10,000 units per year, we’re not talking that “one-car-at-a-time” paint booth that your local body shop has installed – we’re talking a multi-million dollar robotic line. Plus there’s no guarantee that the composite body will even accept paint without being reformulated to do so.

[Len Nowak Nowak]

That is ( was) the case given the CA location but I am not sure the door is shut on just wrap. Colored composite is being used in the development vehicles with vinyl wrap

Chris would know what his composite could take “if” painting is revisited.

I believe the old Aptera 2e was paint and decals back in the X- Prize says

I had a ride in the 2e and assumed it was painted back in ~ 2009

Now with full solar and the option to leave in the sun all day.. whatever is more durable is good with me

I never owned a composite body or vinyl wrapped

[Scott Price]

I am very willing to pay extra for a paint or gel coat option, even though in my opinion it is better for Aptera long term to have a baseline higher quality (i.e., non-vinyl wrap) finish so as to just get rid of all the controversy, eliminate the longevity/maintenance/accumulating cost questions for current and future on-the-fence customers, and support Aptera’s brand integrity long term.

Regarding cost of creating a paint shop: Agreed that the extra cost of an Aptera-specific paint shop could be amortized over increased revenue from the option that many people appear to be interested in receiving. I hope they do the math and make it profitable. Increased profit can be derived from each individual associated option sale as well as from higher overall volume sales since the controversial vinyl wraps decision gets removed as a potential show-stopper for some customers.

Alternatively, paint can also be outsourced to an existing paint shop. Then, Aptera does not need to invest in creating a paint shop and a different company gets to make some income off of their existing paint shop capital expense investment, all funded by the paint (or gel coat) “upsell” optional cost that a number of reservation owners appear willing to pay for a better quality ownership experience. There are already many examples of Aptera’s components and design that are being outsourced.

[Bob Kirchner]

If it comes with gel coat, that’s great. If it comes with a wrap, I’m okay with that too. If the wrap falls apart, I’ll take it to a local body shop and have it painted, rather than getting it re-wrapped.

[Jacob Armstrong]

I was wondering why nobody had mentioned the option of outsourcing the paint job. With Aptera’s relatively low-volume production, I’d think that paying a bit extra per-job at an established paint shop would be cheaper than building their own shop.

[Vernon Michael Gardner]

There may be an issue with painting sense the coolant is flowing through the panels. Wrapping may make the cooling less efficient. We will need to wait and see which options we can use safely with the final build.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  Vernon Michael Gardner.

[kerbe2705]

From what we understand, the coolant won’t flow through the body panels: It’s the belly of the beast that will serve as both “chill plate” and passive radiator.

[Vernon Michael Gardner]

I had not seen anything on them using a heat sink instead of cooling veins.

[Joshua Rosen]

Why does a composite body need anything at all, plastic doesn’t rust.

[Gary Greenway]

A couple reasons that I think of is it would look terrible without an external finish and it may not be UV safe. I heard they are curing the resin with UV light. Additional exposure may degrade the resin long term.

[John Trotter]

This keeps coming up, with no added information. Management has said they are looking at all options. They have experience with boats (gel applied to molds, I believe) so their examination would not be just theoretical. Have faith.

[IA -1]

No.

[Daniel Crotty]

This is an off shoot topic. Look up Wrap in search.

There is a long discussion on the topic, which by the way also has no conclusion.

In the end, Aptera has not decided. There are too many unknown factors to make any decision.