Surprise Aptera News?

[Biker]

You may need to lower your expectations.

[Wildman]

Howdy. We are all excited to one day own one of these amazing vehicles. Patience young grasshopper 😁

[john-malcom]

Morris has the best advice 😃 we will know when we will know. Worrying won’t make it come any faster. Something about a watched pot and boiling????

[kerbe2705]

@Russell Fauver Aptera usually releases an “update video” during the first or second week of each month.

[Pragmatic_to_a_Fault]

Worrying won’t make it come quicker , true

Posting discontent in the waiting , lack of updates , lack of expedience , etc ( if the boards are truly monitored and read by actual aptera employees ) may light a fire under their butts to maybe quit over engineering the vehicle to the point of failing again.

I doubt that I am the only one who feels this way.

People are funny , they will only wait so long , and when they see the price of gas continue to climb, the price or used cars continue to climb , inflation continue to climb , the recession hit next quarter.

How much more can the middle class take before it breaks , and those of us who ordered this as a saving grace in the face of all these economic hardships , will get tired of waiting and buy a hybrid at a price we can afford now and start saving money at the pump.

Don’t forget the only way to get this runaway inflation under control is to raise interest rates and by the time aptera finally produces cars we can actually buy , you won’t have 0.9% financing any more , we’ll be lucky if we don’t see the carteresque interest rates of 15% at this rate. ( this is not political discourse this is simple economics )

[john-malcom]

Frustrated I guess.

There are many updates, at least one a month. No other car manufacturer does that. Adequate progress is reported to engender confidence that they are on plan with their development and testing. They do not need a fire built under their butts. I always feel a sense of urgency when I hear the engineers or management talking about their activities. I have no idea how you can conclude Aptera is over engineering the vehicle. Many people on the forum want this or that added. Aptera has stuck to a minimum feature set focused on efficiency. Inflation, COVID, recession are not Aptera’s fault. Nor is the squeeze these conditions place on our individual finances. We are free to make buying and other financial decisions that are in our best interests in light of the current and future financial environment

[konijntje]

I do agree with your point regarding the board. I would love to have someone of Aptera a bit more active here with responding and general engagement with the community.

I disagree with the rest though. Sure, people can buy a hybrid or full EV right now, and then what? Aptera is because of this no longer valid? That’s a bit silly to think…

[Pragmatic_to_a_Fault]

Russell the point is , people by nature have become a very impatient society , we use to call them “green button” generation, they are so use to pushing the green button and having now now now , that they don’t know what it’s like to wait for anything

That said. With the price of everything skyrocketing and showing no signs of calming , couple that with the fed raising interest rates again today , the pressure is on for people to save , cut back , curb etc just to make ends meet.

By the time they make more 1 and 2 mm adjustments and have a car available for us to actually purchase.

Will we have already bought something else ? Will

We be able to afford the carteresque interest rates that we are headed for ? Will people buy a car when their income has been cut by $6000 a year thanks to inflationary spending ?

[joshua-caldwell]

Inflation is only something to worry about if you didn’t invest the Aptera price ahead of time. I did and even if released today I could get 2 Apteras instead of just 1… another way of thinking about it, I would get a free Aptera with nothing out of the pocket.

[daniel-oneil]

I’m sorry but what? If you didn’t invest the Aptera price ahead of time? I’m sorry but the Aptera was going to be one of, if not, the cheapest EV commuter for the masses and not just people who can simply invest in this terrible market and make enough from those investments to buy 2 Apteras. Kudos to you sir for being the small minority who can profit over 100k (least we not forget about taxes and inflation) in a few years by investing.

[keith-bilyeu]

Patrick, I also have to disagree with you. Tesla rushed production and put out cars where body seams didn’t fit, the upholstery wasn’t all tucked in around the edges etc…

I want a car that is well-engineered. I would much rather wait another year and get a great car than get a shoddy or unsafe car because of impatience.

Current EV manufacturers are just pushing the same 4000 to 5000lbs cars with a battery. Aptera is starting from the ground up. Materials Science, 3D printing, etc. It will take more time.

I love what they are doing and am happy to wait. I would love to see them chronicle the story in more detail so we can join them on the journey.

[john-malcom]

If Aptera waits another year they will miss the boat and be behind in the market. Also I am not sure they can raise enough capital to operate another year without some kind of revenue from sales.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough. The vehicles doesn’t need to be perfect before it is in production.

[jack-vincent]

I see this for what it is, yes it definitely needs to be out there for sure, yes patience is what’s needed. This vehicle is a game changer, it’s already been stated that this company has every intention to be fluid with upgrades with tech advances but don’t think (and you shouldn’t think like that) that upgrades will be free. Far from it, however know that this company will be doing their best to give you “the public” the best possible vehicle in the best time frame that is possible. You the public need to ask yourself is this what I actually need or am I just getting swept up in the hype of it all. After all it’s just an Autocycle. It’s no Tesla with all the bells and whistles. Lol. It is the most aerodynamic efficient vehicle out there though so if your happy to own a 2 seat aerodynamic vehicle then this is your vehicle (it definitely fits me very well) then this is for you.👌❤

[david-marlow]

They have recently made agreements with suppliers.

Right now they must be talking with them about the best ways they can work together to achieve the stated mission.

In the last year they have indicated that they know who their primary battery supplier will be and that they would be assembling there own battery packs.

It has also been stated that they are working on a true solar Beta, so my hope is that it will also have a 40KWH battery with a beta charging system and belly pan cooling system. This would be the first real world test mule, of the main concepts the Aptera is based on.

[Russell]

Note to my earlier self… Calm down, be patient, it takes time to build a new vehicle. I’m standing here in august and still hoping to see something other than a single bare bodied beta, so cool your jets! Oh btw, you’re going to need new batteries for your car in July so go ahead and order them now, it’ll save your future self about 8 weeks of down time.

[ROMAD]

Yeah, they have apparently blown their Gamma release plan. Back at the beginning of June it was supposed to be about 6 weeks and we’re close to week 9, I think.

[kerbe2705]

@Dennis Swaney It wasn’t so much a “plan” as it was a designer making a hopeful statement of intent… You might note that Aptera was also busy upgrading the Sol Alpha for shipment to Asia so that Chris could impress various suppliers and potential partners there – probably a more urgent project than generating a new Gamma prototype.

[norman-roberts]

7 weeks tomorrow

[john-malcom]

Running short on time and a LOT left to do. Most important though is securing funding. Without capital even necessary things can’t be done or at least done on time. I think one drop dead will be to have something (Gamma or an up fitted Sol) for the event early in September. A lot of visibility there. If Aptera doesn’t have something impressive their credibility will be ruined nationally and internationally. The Elio finger will start to be pointed.

[Pistonboy]

It has been important to deliver “a” vehicle before the end of the year.

Delivering “a” vehicle before the end of the year may be a milestone that must be met before receiving further funding from wealthy investors.

[ROMAD]

All caught up on all rumors? 😁

[Russell]

It’s mid November, waiting to hear it’s ‘pencils down’ on the Delta design.

[ray-holan]

I had it directly from Jason Hill about 6 weeks ago that the Delta design was to have been finalized by November 15th.

[ROMAD]

Like production and actual sales would start before the end of 2022? The Gamma would be revealed by mid July 2022? I hope you took that with a large bag of salt as their previous predictions haven’t been that accurate. 🙂

[ray-holan]

I think “finalizing the design” is a much lower bar than “producing our first Aptera”. I took Jason Hill’s statement to mean final decisions about the initial feature set, dimensions, and shapes will have been made by November 15th. Producing a vehicle that incorporates those decisions is, of course, another matter entirely;)

[Russell]

Looks like Jason Hill was a little ambitious with his November 15th prediction. The latest word from Aptera, “We are eager to finalize our production-intent design and reveal renders of Delta by the end of the year.”.

[curtis-cibinel]

Two major webinars yesterday. More rumors, observations, and inferences will come soon.

[Greek]

Prior to Gamma reveal at Super Charged, teaser photos of the vehicle were shown almost every week since July.

So far we got a look at the new body frame and shell. I don’t recall any other pics. Does anybody else have something to add?

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by  John Voules.

[Markus]

There is only one important point I picked up in these two webinars: Chris Anthony said that once Aptera will have fully reached their inicial funding goal (right now not yet there) it would take 9 months to set up everything until the first production Aptera would leave their facilities.

Said that, I’m leaning back till then.

The good part of the somewhat lengthy waiting time is that everybody can put aside some extra money that either can be spent on

• a possible price adjustment due to inflation👎,
• some extra features 😇 and/or
• additional Aptera shares 👍😁

[Greek]

I can’t imagine Chris leaning back too long. California grant of 22 million plus non-binding stock purchase offer for another $21 recently to be qualified late winter along with individual investors….we can’t be that far off. This is why I feel we are just waiting for them to finish Delta.

[jonah-jorgenson]

Rose colored glasses; I think. Chris certainly is not leaning back. He is all of these places where he appears beating the bushes for sources of capital.

At one time the target for full production was about $100M. I think the actual figure is close to that. Maybe more with inflation as high as it is lately. I suspect Aptera doesn’t have the $21M grant yet knowing how slow and bureaucratic grant money is to get once approved. The $20M is not a sure thing and if it comes, won’t come until the second quarter at the earliest. Aptera needs a lot more money now. If Aptera had both now they wouls still be significantly short of what is really needed.

A lot falls into production readiness. A starting supply of components for assembly. A reliable flow of those components to support continued production. These need to be paid for ahead of delivery to start. perhaps net 30 or 60 once credibility of the buyer is established. Production equipment procured and installed. There was no sign of any assembly equipment in the completely empty assembly facility during the gamma reveal. Payment for the equipment, payment for delivery, cost of labor to install. Procurement of assembly staff. organization and training of assembly staff. Assembly staff practice of documented (I hope by now) assembly process. All additional dollars needed. At this point an official delta can be produced. (Delta = production ready vehicle produced using production components in a production facility, using a production process)

Testing of the delta vehicles (Probably 10 – 20 needed) to include safety testing. Reengineering to correct defects found during testing, reworking production line to accommodate the changes, retesting to insure correction of defects.

Managing government certifications and approvals.

Staffing up for vehicle customer service, vehicle support, and sales and delivery processes. Finalizing the Right to Repair process. Establishing an initial support network. Financing and establishing an initial supply of repair parts based on an assent of component failure rates.

Establishing selling and delivery processes and acquiring appropriate licenses. Contracting for selected delivery process vendors.

A partial list of what it will take to get to production and delivery to retail customers. All requiring capital, which for the most part Aptera does not have at this point.

[kerbe2705]

@Jonah Jorgenson …not to mention, “Figuring out how the referral credit system is going to work”! 😁

[Greek]

You keep referring to rose colored glasses. A bit of an insult as to imply I do not see the world as it is. I will grant you that I do see things as a glass that is half full.

Your personal analysis which may have some truth is not a representative as to APTERA’s true position. You are not in the know for their complete situation, you are not employed by them as an analyst or a fiduciary consultant. Much of what you say is said in a way that kills conversation and scares off others. You can use a little tint in your own eye ware.

[dan-stevens]

Not sure, but I think the grant money is given out as reimbursement to expenses. I doubt they are given the cash upfront. Perhaps they will get a partial advance and then as they account for the spend in an approved way, they will get more. Not sure how it will work.

There are a lot of stipulations on what it can be spent on and you can bet California will monitor that pretty heavily.

[993cc]

The stock purchase offer announcement specified that it was to take place after production had started. That capital will be useful for establishing sales and customer support channels, but it won ‘t help Aptera reach production.

[Markus]

That’s why it’s good for getting to production soon to buy shares now.

[craig-merrow]

As my grandfather used to tell me, “If it’s worth having, it’s worth waiting for”.