Wheel Composition?

[jonah-jorgenson]

Probably not steel wheels. They are a real weight penalty.

[993cc]

Regardless, I hope there is an inexpensive option for a second set of wheels to keep my winter tires on.

[ROMAD]

Here are a couple of light 16″ wheels:

regamaster/spoon – 10.5lbs

volk SE37K – 10.8 lbs

[john-trotter]

Dennis Swaney. I believe to get so light, these need to be forged. Cost would be 3x to 5x regular steel or alloy at maybe 20 to 25 lbs. I shifted to forged wheels on my Tesla MYP and dropped 25 lbs per corner, but could not tell any economy difference, although I know it must exist. And I like the look and ride. And they are strong enough for racing (just not with MY car). I’ll be happy with whatever Aptera chooses.

ps: In another post is an interview with Elaphe CTO where he mentions the whole unsprung-weight deal and the need to design the car (suspension), the wheel, and the in-wheel motor in a coordinated fashion. I have to believe Aptera & Elaphe are doing just that.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  John Trotter. Reason: add a bit

[vernon-sinnott]

I wonder if the rear wheel will be considerably wider than the front wheels like on the Polaris Slingshot. Tires and wheels can have a huge effect on electric car range (greencarreports.com)https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128745_tires-and-wheels-can-have-a-huge-effect-on-electric-car-range

[abinitio1980]

Pretty sure I heard them state in one interview/ Q&A that all rims / tyres were the same size (and possibly motors for 3WD??)

[Greek]

Yes…I also remember APTERA mentioning that all 3 wheels and tires will be the same size. It will allow you to rotate for even wear. Unfortunately there is no pattern to the rotation, hopefully that will be addressed once vehicle begin to ship.

I know there are some excellent light wheels out there…I am willing to forgo a little efficiency for a bit more safety of steel wheels.

Also I do remember that APTERA also mentioned that the wheels and tires will be of a common size so as not to have added cost for replacement.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  John Voules.

[ROMAD]

Only two major rotation possibilities are clockwise or counterclockwise if you include the rear. Swapping just the fronts would be easy if non-directional tires are use; the rear would have to be removed from the rim, flipped, and remounted in this scenario.

[Greek]

Front wheel drive vs AWD will present different scenarios as wear patterns will not be somewhat even between all 3 tires. Front drive will leave the rear with more thread. My thoughts are to move the rear to any front tire that has more wear first. Not sure what the next move might be?

[UnidentifiedDrivingObject]

One of many reasons why I opted for AWD. As it stands (minus a 4th wheel), I’d prefer a near even tire wear depth/grip across all 3 wheels. As long as tires are non directional, clockwise or counterclockwise rotation won’t matter much.

[ROMAD]

Which side is the rear motor mounted and wired, right or left? Will it use the same hub for as the front for mounting the wheel?

[kerbe2705]

@Dennis Swaney The current iterations of Aptera run on standard 195/45 R16 non-directional rubber. The Beta shows the rear wheel mounted to the right side of the motor/hub.

[ROMAD]

Thanks!

OK, when the wheels are on the rear and right front, they will accumulate twice as many miles rotating clockwise than when they are on the left front rotating counter-clockwise.

[mark-salyzyn]

So this means to equalize non-directional rubber you must always rotate the rear to the left front, the left front to the right front, and the right front to the rear?

[ROMAD]

No, Mark, the rear wheel goes clockwise when looking at the “outside” of the rim. So you go 5000 miles then rotate. If you move the rear to the left front it will then go counter-clockwise for 5000 miles. Then it is moved to the right front where it will revert to clockwise for the next 5000 miles before being moved to the rear where it will still go clockwise. Basically all tires will accumulate 15000 miles but 10000 of that will be in one direction and 5000 in the opposite direction no matter if the pattern is rear>left front>right front>rear or rear>right front>left front>rear. The only way I see to better equalize the directional wear is to dismount the tire from the rim, flip it, and remount it on the rim. Probably the best point to do that is when a wheel is moving from a front position to the rear position.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  Dennis Swaney.

[abinitio1980]

Or have the tyres swapped in the rims

[kerbe2705]

@John Voules The wheels Aptera has been using since the Alpha are forged aluminum with 195/45 R16 rubber.

[vernon-sinnott]

Will Aptera consider supplying different rubber tires based on the climate? Phoneix and Calgary have extreme temperatures at opposite ends of the scale. All Weather tires would make more sense in Calgary for year round use. They have all seasons for very hot climates like Phoenix. Everything changes if one swaps their tires form all seasons to snow tires. Aptera should have recommendations for varying climates and scenarios.

[ROMAD]

They haven’t done any climate testing yet. Maybe they’ll find one of those large climate chambers that can replicate any climate from anywhere on the planet rather than take pre-production models to Minnesota or Alaska in the winter and the Mojave Desert in the summer.

[peter-jorgensen]

The stock Model X tires in Norway will freeze solid with bumps in them. So I would recommend just getting your own snow tires. There are two models available in the stock Aptera tire size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=capOgUHPz9Q