Aptera has mostly been quiet for the last few months, but the company recently received its first production body, which was shipped from Italy, where it is manufactured by the CPC Group.
This means that while production has not yet started, the company’s unique three-wheeled solar electric vehicle is one step closer to entering production and fulfilling some of its over 40,000 reservations—first customer deliveries were postponed until 2024, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they got pushed back again due to lack of capital.
The company’s California headquarters was recently visited by Wouter Remmerie, the founder of AirShaper, the aerodynamic simulation and analysis tool that essentially acts as a virtual wind tunnel. This tool was used to refine the Aptera three-wheeler’s shape to make it as slippery as possible without having to use an actual wind tunnel—this is considerably cheaper and quicker, and you can only run the finished design through the wind tunnel for validation.
AirShaper posted a video on its YouTube channel that features a walkaround of one of the working prototypes, with comments from Aptera CEO and co-founder Chris Anthony.
The Aptera boss explains the three-wheeler’s body was designed more like a helicopter or airplane fuselage than a traditional car, which is why it has such a low coefficient of drag estimated to be somewhere between 0.13 and 0.15. For reference, the most aerodynamic production car, the Mercedes-Benz EQS, has a drag coefficient of 0.202, and the Volkswagen XL1 streamliner just dips under the 0.20 mark.
They also take the Aptera prototype for a quick spin with Wouter at the wheel and highlight some of its driving characteristics. He is impressed by how flat and sporty the vehicle feels through the corners, as well as how finished it looks and feels inside. The company representative who joins Wouter for the ride says he’s driven the prototype so long that he would gladly use it as his daily driver, although he would like it to have air conditioning.
If you want to get an even closer look at the Aptera prototype, The Topher posted a POV walkaround video where he also briefly drives the vehicle. He shows the exterior and interior in detail, and we even get to see the cool way Aptera uses the license plate as a cover for the charging port located on the back of the vehicle.
