Save The Aptera

[palmer_md]

Zaptera probably deserves its own thread.

[NeilBlanchard]

Sigh... oh well.

That is the X-Prize SO-1, again. The ill fitting hood is the giveaway.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by SEGsby

Dear God, I'll kill myself if BYD bought Aptera...

Interesting perspective. I'd think they would be a better bet than Zap for actually getting it to market, and having battery production in house can be a huge competitive advantage. Obviously, things have not gone according to plan with their electric cars, but they seem to have made a genuine effort, and have some passion about what they are doing. Zap continues to loose money, and has had loads of bad press, gives the appearance of closing up shop, etc.

Too bad the molds didn't go to an entity with a history of actually accomplishing something in the market -- someone like Ducati, for instance, with a passion for doing things differently, and demonstrated success at doing so while competing with far larger companies.

[SEGsby]

Ducati is now owned by Audi. Passion went out when the German Spreadsheet came in:

http://www.inquisitr.com/222100/audi-buys-ducati/

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by SEGsby

Passion went out when the German Spreadsheet came in

You may be right. My guess is that they will be pretty hands off. Unlike Lamborghini, Ducati doesn't have many problems to fix -- they are profitable, have a great reputation, etc. Seems like an odd buy, actually. (Although maybe there is some BMW envy at play. ) It would be a shame if they make Ducati into another BMW.

[dfbvt]

Sigh!

Its amazing how much damage 1 person can do. I wonder what company he is going to kill next....

Dave Bowles

[Sheepdog 44]

Thank goodness, i almost made a complete fool of myself if it was otherwise.

I would not be so pessimistic about Zaptera. Granted the EV part of the company is dealing with the issue everybody else is (Leaf, Volt) which is EV's sales aren't exactly meeting expected demand mostly due to high cost. The Aptera is such a high demand niche product i don't see them having trouble selling it. At least it has a future still.

(I personally believe in the hybrid/plug in drivetrain to maximize mpg for battery and overall cost. Look at how well the Prius C is doing. It would'nt be doing so great if it was a pure EV. I think battery range should only be enough for the average 2 way commute. anything more is wasting resources.)

The way i came to the conclusion that Zap bought Aptera was by two seemingly unrelated public statements by Oliver Kutner which i withheld because i wasn't sure it was okay to be public information yet. One was a radio interview in which he stated briefly that Aptera got sold at auction to the Chinese.

The second and more interesting is an obscure comment on the Zap-Jonway facebook page several weeks ago that said something like "you recently bought something in california, that something needs something we have to make it better."

Do i see a licensing and consulting future with VLC tech in the Aptera? I think E2 may have found their first customers. Aptera with VLC components under 1500lbs sounds promising to me.

[SEGsby]

The Zap Alias looks very similar to an Aptera, without a large cargo area. It would fit in with the type of vehicles they're interested in offering...