Turning radius/diameter

[curtis-cibinel]

It’s all on the structure of the front. The pods could turn about 60 degrees without hitting the body and provide their own thrust. I suspect it should be better than basically anything that doesn’t have 4 wheel steering

[dean-mcmanis]

The only comment that I recently heard about regarding the turning radius was from Aptera’s website update: “Roush, recognized global leader in engineering, prototyping, testing and manufacturing, is driving new advances in Aptera Motors’ solar electric vehicle (sEV) as the company nears completion of its Beta development phase. Among the enhancements to the ultra-efficient design include improvements to turning radius, geometry, door seals and latches.” So whatever the turning radius was, it’s better now.

[paul-kirchner]

Probably not related to turning radius but to other unknown reasons, I noticed on the Jay Leno spot, his turns were always very large, often going into the next lane before straightening out. I’m thinking maybe they were a function of the video production needing certain things to happen. But it got me wondering.

[Titus]

Have taken this out of some Aptera video. Won’t say how big it is though.

Aptera_Concept_00011.jpg 74 KB Image File - Click to view

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[len]

Yes. in the early days I heard.. “ Similar to a same size car”. IMHO with Roush’s help and the betas coming I’d wait to ask after they hit the road. Production intent model is what counts. We don’t even know if the three Alphas had torque vector, which may factor in to that turning radius FWD vs AWD ¯\_(~̃ ͜ʖ°̃)_/¯ But ….what do I know….

[r-daniel-hood]

Just estimating based on the website graphic:

ApteraTurningRadius.jpg 28 KB Image File - Click to view

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[ray-holan]

Hope it is better than 23 ft. My Hyundai Ioniq hybrid’s turning radius is 17.5 ft.

[GNiessen]

My old 2001 Prius was 15.4′ I do like being able to make a U-turn on a city street without having to do a three point turn. In Europe they are really going to need a tight radius.

[Fran]

I remember the video that turning radius picture was taken from. It was showing that the turning radius was improved over that of the Alpha. Notice there are two circles in that picture. One is about 39.4 feet diameter or 19.8 feet radius while the other (Alpha) is about 46.6 feet diameter or 23.3 feet radius. If you want other evidence that the turning radius will be good go watch the video of the skid pad g-force testing where Beta is squealing the tires in a tight turn in a parking lot.

https://youtu.be/V88RhwLEb3I at 11 seconds into the video.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Francis Giroux.

[sam-thaya]

I would like to see a video of the Aptera doing a U-turn at an intersection onto a two-lane street. Anyone have any ideas on if that is possible with all these radius numbers being thrown around in this thread?

[john-malcom]

I would suggest waiting until a gamma or delta vehicle is ready. Until that point there will be many configurations of Aptera Betas for specific testing which will not be representative of the production configuration of the vehicle. the Alphas don’t have power steering, the revised suspension, or production size batteries. The steering system Yoke, power, and any surprises is not finalized as well.

The net of all of this is that old turning radius diagrams or data are no longer valid and no production turning information will be available for a while.

[Zac]

Hi All!

I’m wondering, has anyone come across what Aptera’s turn radius will be? I’m expecting it will be looser than a Prius C, but tighter than a honda civic.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  Zac Courtney. Reason: Found a better Gif
• This reply was modified 12 months ago by  Gabriel Kemeny.

[GNiessen]

I hope it is fairly tight. I have a 2001 Prius and have enjoyed being able to do a 180 in a normal city street. Really surprised drivers license tester that was trying to see how I handled a 3 point turn. I do hope the Aptera can get close to that.

[kerbe2705]

@Zac Courtney I’m guessing it’s another one of those “wait and see” questions: Until the design of the front wheel pants is finalized they won’t know how much the front wheels can turn without impacting the body.

[Biker]

From Chris M on the AOC Discord channel:

we have the official turning diameter from engineering on our production vehicle. The curb-to-curb turning diameter of the Aptera is 37.5 ft (11.4 m).

For reference, a Corolla is 35.6 feet, a Tesla Model S is 40.3 feet, and a F150 is 47.8 feet. 💚

[ROMAD]

And here is some more relevant info:

From Raildig.com

The total width of this two-lane road, shoulder edge to shoulder edge, is approximately 38 feet in width. Each lane is 12 feet wide. The road shoulders are 8 feet and 6 feet wide, these vary quite a bit in width. The white striped lines separating the lanes from the shoulders are 6 inches wide.

US Road Dimensions – Raildig.com

And from UCLA ( https://streetwidths.its.ucla.edu/ ):

50 feet wide

In the United States, residential streets are typically 50 feet wide. That’s much wider than in most other countries.

Street Widths – The width and value of residential streets

[Jeff]

Nice! That’s also better than the Model 3 at 38 ft.

Thanks for posting this.

[Mike-Mars]

Just for clarity, “turning diameter” = turning circle, and 2 x turning radius?

[Biker]

Correct.

[former_fan]

Is this from an actual physical vehicle or a render? The turning diameter? What was Gamma’s turning radius

[Biker]

All info for quite a while will be from renders – a physical Delta is likely several months away.

[joshua-caldwell]

For reference, the Aptera turning diameter compared to all other vehicles my parents or I have owned, aside from what I learned to drive in.

???? Ford Escort 32.8′ – The car I learned to drive on at school, I’ve always missed this tight turning radius

1986 Toyota Celica 33.6′

2022 Toyota Prius 35.4′

2015 Ford Fiesta 35.5′

1996 Chevrolet Lumina 36′

1992 Pontiac Grand Prix 36.7′

2004 Pontiac Grand Prix 37.4′

*** Aptera Turning Diameter 37.5′ ***

???? Ford Crown Victoria 43.1′

2003 Cadillac DeVille 44′

[Greek]

One of the reasons I’m shopping for another BMW i3….32’ turning radius. Great for maneuvering and parking in Chicago.

[ROMAD]

I just checked my current vehicles.

1990 Mazda Miata 30.6′

2005 VW Jetta Wagon 35.8′

BTW the smallest possible for any vehicle I’ve driven was 25.6′ but that was using pivot steer in an M113 APC.

[oliver-hess]

What is the curb-to-curb turning diameter of Aptera?

The curb-to-curb turning diameter of Aptera is 37.5 ft (11.4 m).