The Aptera 2 Series (formerly the Aptera Typ-1) was a high-efficiency

three-wheeled A three-wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels. Some are motorized tricycles, which may be legally classed as motorcycles, while others are tricycles without a motor, some of which are human-powered vehicles and animal-powered vehicles. Overv ...

passenger car designed by

Aptera Motors Aptera Motors (formerly Accelerated Composites) is an American startup high-efficiency car company based in Carlsbad, California. The original company, Aptera Motors, Inc., was founded in 2005 and liquidated in 2011. In 2019, Aptera Motors wa ...

that failed to reach production. The first model of the 2 Series slated for production was the Aptera 2e (formerly Typ-1e), a

battery electric vehicle A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, wi ...

announced in late 2008. The 2e would accelerate from 0- in 6.3 seconds and have a top speed of . A later model would have been Aptera 2h (formerly Typ-1h), a

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...

electric vehicle. According to Aptera, the 2 Series expected price range was £16,000 to £32,000. An Aptera 2 made a short appearance in the 2009 film ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

''. The company opened pre-ordering for residents of California, but stopped taking deposits in July 2011. On 12 August 2011, Aptera announced it would return all deposits from customers who had signed up to buy a car. In 2019,

was re-formed by the original founders, Chris Anthony and Steve Fambro, and began developing a much revised solar-powered EV, the

Aptera (solar electric vehicle) The Aptera is a three-wheeled, two-passenger solar electric vehicle, the third revision of the previous Aptera 2 Series vehicle by startup Aptera Motors. It is a highly efficient battery electric vehicle (BEV) with built-in solar panels on th ...

, with up to a 1,600 km range.

Design and fuel consumption

The Aptera 2 Series was designed to be a low-energy vehicle; early estimates of its energy consumption ran as low as 80 watt-hours/mi at 55 mph. Later estimates are as high as 200 Wh for aggressive driving. The company stated in September 2009 that "if Aptera was given an official EPA rating

he fuel-efficiency figure assigned to all cars by the United States federal government He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

it would be 851 mpg", suggesting that it is 2.2 times more efficient than

Nissan Leaf The , stylized as LEAF, is a compact five-door hatchback battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufactured by Nissan. It was introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, and its second generation was introduced in October 2017. The L ...

. The Aptera 2 Series has a , compared with for the record-holding

General Motors EV1 The General Motors EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker and the first GM car designed to ...

, and for the 2010

Mercedes-Benz E-Class The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive cars manufactured by German automaker Mercedes-Benz in various engine and body configurations. Produced since 1953, the E-Class falls midrange in the Mercedes line-up, and has been marketed world ...

Coupé, currently the lowest for a mass-produced car. The Aptera's atypical shape is a result of extensive optimization in a virtual wind tunnel, following the designs of Alberto Morelli. It used recessed windshield wipers and

low rolling resistance tire Low rolling resistance tires are designed to reduce the energy loss as a tire rolls, decreasing the required rolling effort — and in the case of automotive applications, improving vehicle fuel efficiency as approximately 5–15% of the fuel c ...

s. The first prototype attained a by making use of an "Eyes-Forward" rear-view camera system instead of side-view mirrors, which create a large amount of drag. A September 2008 Aptera newsletter showed a rendering of the car featuring a conventional driver-side mirror and no driver-side rear-view camera. Aptera CTO Steve Fambro stated that the system was simplified to make use of a single camera mounted near the top of the vehicle. The body design was similar to Pegasus Research Company's human-powered "Fusion" vehicle (1983) and the

MIT Aztec The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of t ...

, but the direct inspiration was the

Volkswagen 1-litre car The Volkswagen XL1 (VW 1-litre) is a two-person limited production diesel-powered plug-in hybrid produced by Volkswagen. The XL1 car was designed to be able to travel 100 km on 1 litre of diesel (), while being both roadworthy and practica ...

. The Aptera 2 Series was a three-wheeled vehicle with front-wheel drive. On March 23, 2010, Aptera announced their use of

BorgWarner BorgWarner Inc. is an American automotive supplier headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The company maintains production facilities and technical systems at 93 sites (as of June 6, 2022) in 22 countries worldwide and has around 49,000 employ ...

's 31-03 eGearDrive transmission for the 2e drive train. An April 14, 2010 press release announced further suppliers:

A123 Systems A123 Systems, LLC, a subsidiary of the Chinese Wanxiang Group Holdings, is a developer and manufacturer of Lithium iron phosphate battery, lithium iron phosphate batteries and energy storage systems. The company was founded in 2001 by Yet-Ming Ch ...

for the 20 kWh

lithium iron phosphate Lithium iron phosphate or lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a gray, red-grey, brown or black solid that is insoluble in water. The material has attracted attention as a component of lithium iron phosph ...

(LiFePO4) battery pack, and

Remy International Remy International, Inc. (formerly Delco Remy) headquartered in Pendleton, Indiana is an American manufacturer, remanufacturer, and distributor of light duty starters, alternators, hybrid power technology, and Delco Remy brand heavy duty systems. ...

for the 82 kW HVH250

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...

. The freeway range was promised to be around with two passengers and some luggage. They planned to offer an

SAE J1772 SAE J1772, also known as a J plug or Type 1 connector after its international standard, IEC 62196 Type 1, is a North American standard for electrical connectors for electric vehicles maintained by SAE International under the formal title "SAE S ...

compatible charging system, at either 110 or 220 V.

Plug-in series hybrid

An early Aptera 2h design used a "small, water-cooled EFI

gasoline engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as '' ...

with closed loop oxygen feedback and

catalytic converter A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usuall ...

," coupled with a 12 kW generator/starter. With a tank capacity of "up to five gallons," the Aptera 2h would have a claimed range of , compared to the range of the Aptera 2e. The 2h would have been a

series hybrid Hybrid vehicle drivetrains transmit power to the driving wheels for hybrid vehicles. A hybrid vehicle has multiple forms of motive power. Hybrids come in many configurations. For example, a hybrid may receive its energy by burning gasoline, but sw ...

: The engine would not be connected to the drivetrain, instead being used to recharge the batteries. As with any plug-in hybrid, fuel economy of the Aptera 2h would depend on trip length and battery charge. For trips of less than about after a full charge the engine may not turn on at all, resulting in approximately the same energy consumption as the pure electric model 96 watt-hours/mile. If on the other hand, the car were never plugged in, the Aptera 2h would get . Aptera Motors quoted , which applies to a trip after a full charge. They justified this by stating that 99% of Americans drive less than daily.

Safety

Because the Aptera 2 Series had only three wheels, most American states classify the vehicle as a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruisin ...

. This means that safety and

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

tests are not mandatory, as they are for

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

s. Despite this, Aptera Motors emphasized that safety had a high priority in the vehicle's design. Aptera Motors performed simulated crash tests using

Abaqus Abaqus FEA (formerly ABAQUS) is a software suite for finite element analysis and computer-aided engineering, originally released in 1978. The name and logo of this software are based on the abacus calculation tool. The Abaqus product suite consis ...

FEM software, crush testing on structural components, and was planning real-world crash tests before production. The Aptera 2e featured a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

-inspired passenger safety cell and boxed sandwich foam core composite structures. Frontal crumple distance was , large for a vehicle of its size. As the body is above most cars' bumpers, a colliding vehicle's bumper would travel under the body, deflecting the energy. Despite its height, the placement of the heavy batteries lowered the centre of mass of the Aptera 2 Series, a design similar to the highly stable Commuter Cars Tango. Driver and passenger

airbag An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a Traffic collision, collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and a ...

-in-seatbelts were also provided.

Accessories and interior

The design intent model, revealed on 14 April 2010, seated two adults, had

power window Power windows or electric windows are automobile windows which can be raised and lowered by pressing a button or switch, as opposed to using a Crank (mechanism), crank handle. History Packard had introduced hydraulic window lifts (power wi ...

s, cup holders, and of trunk volume. It used

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

running and interior lights to reduce power consumption. An optional

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a pho ...

mounted on the roof runs the

heat pump A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing ...

during the day. This keeps the interior comfortable and reduces the size of the heat pump needed. The seats can be heated or cooled by forced air, both for comfort and efficiency reasons. The only comfort downside is that the suspension was described as "hard".

Radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

, CD/

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Orig ...

player, and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

navigation were integrated into an in-console

touch screen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

carputer A carputer, or car-puter, is a computer with specializations to run in a car, such as compact size, low power requirement, and some customized components. The computing hardware is typically based on standard PCs or mobile devices. They normally ha ...

, based on

Moblin Moblin, short for 'mobile Linux', is a discontinued open source operating system and application stack for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, nettops and embedded devices. Built around the Intel Atom processor, all builds were designed to ...

Wind River Systems Wind River Systems, also known as Wind River (trademarked as Wndrvr), is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems software ...

, but the

climate control Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. H ...

used physical dials. It also had

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electroma ...

-based keyless ignition and entry and scarab doors. To reduce the

ecological footprint The ecological footprint is a method promoted by the Global Footprint Network to measure human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy. It tracks this demand through an ecological accounti ...

of construction, EcoSpun

recycled materials Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

and organic dyes were to be used for the seats and flooring, and the dashboard and the door panels were free of

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as metals with relatively high density, densities, atomi ...

and

plasticizers A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticiz ...

. Aptera also planned to have leatherette and leather seats as options.

References

External links