Aptera, a California-based start-up, represents its three-wheeled car as the world’s first solar electric vehicle to never charge and has a range of up to 1,000 miles (1,600km).
In 24 hours, the manufacturers of $26,000 solar-powered electric car that they say never needs charging have sold out the first batch.
In order to produce the most powerful vehicle ever made available to customers, Aptera provides breakthroughs in lightweight structures, low-drag aerodynamics and cooling, material science, and manufacturing processes, the company states on its website.
Aptera’s Never Charge is built into each vehicle and is designed to collect enough sunlight in most regions to travel more than 11,000 miles per year, the company said.
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In order to require less resources to operate, the unusual teardrop shape is built to be as aerodynamically as productive as possible.
Currently, no one in the electric category is offering a range greater than 500 miles, however, there are some drawbacks to the huge range and no charge claims of Aptera. Just enough energy from the sun to charge 40 miles per day can be absorbed by the solar panels covering the vehicle.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot for 40 miles, but it’s the equivalent of parking your car and making it magically fill up overnight with two gallons of gas,” said Steve Fambro, co-founder of Aptera.
You can park it at work or anywhere and go back to it with more energy in the tank than when you left it without having to spend a dollar to drive it every day, make it charge itself. That’s the kind of freedom that I think a lot of individuals will enjoy.
A 110V outlet is available that permits manual charging, and can be connected to a regular wall socket. This will offer a range of 150 miles from an overnight charge.
In the first batch, only 330 of the revolutionary three-wheelers were available for order, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2021.
