Translating to wingless flight in Greek, the new eco-friendly supercar, Aptera, arrives in 2021 and is going to change the game for green cars completely! It is not a hybrid. It’s not just a run-of-the-mill electric car. It is a solar-powered super vehicle that, for some, may never require a full charge. Aptera is driving right towards the future on a 1,000-mile range that is powered by the sun.
This is fantastic news for those who are particularly concerned about their carbon footprint. Eco-friendly drivers can ride all over the place, knowing that their car carries a minimal carbon footprint and has a minimal impact. Those looking to purchase this electric vehicle can reserve the futuristic Aptera for just US$100.
Revolutionary sustainability design
This three-wheel vehicle looks like a car from the future. Aptera solar EV boasts that the sun array powering the vehicle can harvest enough sunlight for 11,000 miles of driving each year – about 40 miles per day. Even though the car is slim and sleek, they managed to squeeze 32.3 square feet of panels along the exterior.
Pushing the fact that solar-powered cars empower us to break our oil dependency, Aptera’s two-seat, three-wheeled vehicle is likely to be classified as a motorcycle. It’s not just the lightweight construction that helps Aptera’s efficiency; it is incredibly aerodynamic and has a drag coefficient of only 0.13.
An Aptera to suit everyone’s needs
In addition to the 1,000-mile range model, there are listed models with a 250-mile range, 400-mile range, and 600-mile range. If you are someone who appreciates their speed, you will not be disappointed. Aptera goes from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and can reach a top speed of 110 mph. The company is planning on offering both front-wheel and all-wheel drive options.
Aptera almost never happened
The road to completion has not been an easy one for Aptera. The company initially existed from 2006 to 2011. However, their first attempt to launch the vehicle failed. The company missed low-interest loans from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program. This caused the company to collapse and begin liquidation. However, three of the original founders were able to buy back the intellectual property, update the vehicle, and utilize a crowdfunding launch to finance it.
A car completely powered by the Sun
Aptera’s technology is powered almost entirely by the sun, depending on which part of the world you live in. Those living in areas exposed to more sunlight will seldom have to charge the car – we’re talking about a few hours a year. The small, aerodynamically designed vehicle is compact and has both exterior and interior finishes that can be changed depending on your tastes.
The car’s interface has integrated settings that keep the driver completely informed on the car’s energy performance and educate the driver in real-time on saving energy and extending the car’s mileage. Essentially, the car’s creators aimed to reduce drag, friction, and weight to create a vehicle that did not need as much energy but had a way of obtaining an abundance of it.
The ins and outs
This premier solar vehicle is constructed with lightweight materials that are more durable and stronger than steel. As mentioned before, the aerodynamic structure boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.13 – Tesla’s Model 3 has a coefficient of 0.23 for comparison.
Aptera solar EV is available with four different battery capacities, including: 100 kWh, 60 kWh, 40 kWh, or 25 kWh, and each has a solar panel array of about 33-square feet.
Aptera requires no charging for most daily use. If you do need more power, charging it is easier than most of the other electric cars on the market. Many electric vehicles require a special outlet or charging port to power the car. You can plug Aptera into a standard 110V outlet, just like your cell phone.
No sacrifice on performance
Aptera’s exterior is designed to specifically drive performance while also making incredible use of the car’s space to harvest energy. Every single part of the vehicle that would be exposed to sunlight is fitted with solar panels. However, drivers are not going to feel like they are operating a vehicle that performs differently than their traditional models.
Aptera has a brisk and stable acceleration and is incredibly quiet. You know when you are on the highway, and you can hear the wind slapping against your car? Aptera’s aerodynamic design eliminates that wind buffeting noise that occurs when you reach high speeds.
If you are worried about Aptera’s performance during inclement weather, you can rest assured that the car has been designed with these conditions in mind, as well. The all-wheel-drive model has no issues when navigating through poor weather conditions.
How to get your own Aptera solar EV
Aptera will not begin delivering their models until 2021. Earlier this month, the company offered a limited number of special edition models: Paradigm and Paradigm+ that could be reserved for just US$100, and completely sold out. However, Aptera is still taking reservations for custom orders with a refundable deposit of US$100. The final price will start between US$25,900 and US$46,000, depending on range and options.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
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