-
I am curious about people’s choice of range for their Aptera.
My reservation is for a 600 mile option, even though I know that the 400 mile option would easily satisfy 99% of my “needs”. The extra range is for “desires”. 🙂
Of course, 92% of the time I would do okay even with the 250 mile pack, there are those weekends and occasional trips where more is desirable.
Trips to visit family tend to be 300 or 700 miles. Of course, 300 miles is no challenge for any of the pack options and 700 miles COULD (just barely) be done as a two stop trip with the 250 mile pack and very easily so with the 400 mile pack. This assumes ready access to quick chargers / Superchargers. On the Interstate highway system this is rarely an issue, especially with access to Tesla Superchargers.
Other ‘sightseeing’ trips become more of a challenge. On the other than family visit trips, I prefer to take state highways and even back roads to make the trip more interesting. A trip is often more than just a destination. One challenge of this is that away from the Interstate highway system quick chargers and Superchargers are few and far between. One route that I might take a couple of times a year, I would go close to 300 miles before coming close to a quick/Supercharger. Yep, 400 mile would get me there, with some reserve range too. Still, that stop might not be convenient, so the 600 mile option would make things rather more convenient. This trip involves camping, so the extra reserve would come in handy there too.
Even on the 700 mile family trips, the 600 mile option would make life considerably easier. This could be an easy one charge stop trip with that stop being 30-45 minutes for a charge while taking bio-break and having a quick late lunch. Yes, I do make frequent short stops at rest areas, five minutes or so for a bio-break and stretch the legs. If there were chargers at rest areas it would really change the equation (oh well). A 400 mile pack would make this a two charge stop trip. Not horrible, but less convenient.
Now… I might make a family trip about three times a year and other trips three or four times a year. Six to eight trips a year might be a weak argument for the 600 mile pack, but that’s still my choice barring a significant price increase. In the case of a significant price increase, I could make do with the 400 mile option. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Trip/range factors…
What is the real range at 70MPH?
Charge range / stops:
400 mile pack: 100%-10% (max practical range) = 360 mi. 10%-80% charge, about an hour given 50KW max and guessing that it might maintain that for about half of the charge. 80%-10% range = 280 mi. So a maximum practical one stop trip would be 640 miles. A maximum 2 stop trip would be 960 miles – more than a full day of driving for me, and that would include 2 hours of charging. 🙁
600 mile pack: 100%-10% = 540 mi. 10%-80% (~420 mi.) charge would likely take just over an hour assuming that the 66KWH pack would sustain the 50KW rate for a greater percentage of the charge time than the 44KWH pack would. This would give the same 960 LONG day drive with one stop that the 400 mi. pack would get with two stops and almost an hour more of charging time.
Even at my best, only a few times have I driven more than about 800 miles in a day. A 600 mile pack would give me an hour shorter day or an additional ~70 miles more than a 400 mile pack would. Either way would be a significant convenience about once a year. Of course, since I anticipate retiring around the same time that I might take delivery of my Aptera, I just might do a bit more traveling that I do now. 🙂
That’s my story, so what is your range choice and why?