The Horn

[Peter Dezendorf]

One thing I want in an Aptera is a LOUD horn.

Please, design team, don’t leave this to a last minute, barely-hear-it, grab-what-is-on-the-shelf decision.

For 20 years I rode motorcycles; sold my last one in 2019 (a BMW S1000R, what a great bike). On almost every motorcycle I had to change out the horn since the stock one produced a small, tiny, “beep.” The replacement horns were like truck horns with a massive “boom.” It’s a safety thing.

[Bob Kirchner]

I have idly wondered how the horn will work on the Aptera. For aerodynamic reasons they won’t want to have the usual grille or perforations that would allow sound to freely pass to the outside.

Maybe some sort of vibration producing device that would cause the entire nose cone to vibrate? That could be hugely loud, though it might not sound like a horn, which is probably also a safety thing.

What we know is that they won’t sacrifice efficiency.

[Philip Raymond]

About 3 months ago, Aptera was featured on Jay Leno’s Garage and during the drive with Chris Anthony, Jay says “no horn?” Chris answers “no horn, you won’t need one in the future”. Granted, Chris may have been joking with it being an Alpha vehicle they were riding in, but he may have been serious too, no way to know for sure.So an after market horn might well be the only solution, should the Aptera actually be hornless. Here’s link to the video, the comment happens at 15:58 into the show…..https://youtu.be/TsYyJJFYRvc

[Philip Raymond]

They should be able to place one somewhere in the frunk, but it would need to be loud enough to not need an acoustic opening, thereby not effecting aerodynamics.

[Llewellyn Evans]

There are openings for steering and suspension or even in the wheel pants. There are probably other openings as well.

[Philip Raymond]

Great, I wasn’t sure if there were other forward facing openings, as long as it’s noticeable to any ears near it.

[Paul Evans]

There are Federal requirements for BEV vehicles that set multi-band frequencies and minimum decibel levels for specific speed bands to alert seeing-impaired individuals of an approaching vehicle. I don’t know if there are any noise prohibitions above those speed bands set in the regulations.

[Curtis Cibinel]

Any idea if this actually applies to autocycles/motorcycles (which Aptera technically is)? I haven’t seen any e-motorcycles in my area so have no idea if the rules regarding pedestrian noise apply.

PS: NHTSA killing Tesla boombox is bull$%$@. It it still quitter than ICE vehicles. Their argument against it is a joke.

[Kayleigh Venne]

Aptera will have a horn! We look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming months.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 2 weeks ago by  Kayleigh Venne.

[Francis Giroux]

I think they could fit an acceptable horn down by the windshield wipers and not mess up the aerodynamics.