How did you hear about Aptera?

[Aptera 1103]

I thought it would be interesting to find out how people found out about the Aptera.

For me it was a spot on my iGoogle page. One day last month I saw a link to the Popular Mechanics video. Once I saw the car I was hooked. Started showing the video to family and friends and Googling Aptera on the web. Found Aperta's website and realized this company was for real. Talked about this "new car" saw with my wife for at least a week before we decided to put our names on the list. A week later a stumbled upon this Forum.

Now I can not wait until we start to get updates from Aperta.

[RoxChkPlusOny]

I found it after looking all online for "electric vehicles", finally stumbling on the Aptera. The rest is history :)

[Aptera#965]

I found out about the Aptera on a Porsche enthusiast forum (of all places). All of the comments posted about the car were negative.

But not for me; within a few hours of discovery I couldn't whip my credit card out of my wallet fast enough to get my order placed.

I found this website a day or two later and been here ever since :D

[Yanquetino]

...I found out about Aptera via a long chain of events.

I become interested in electric vehicles years ago, when we went through the first oil crisis in the '70s. The only highway-capable electrics available were kit cars, however, which cost an arm and a leg, had no more than a 60 mile range at best, and no regenerative braking. Harrumph.

Jump decades later to this century, and one evening we saw the movie The Prestige. I came away wanting to know more about Nikola Tesla. Upon browsing the web, I saw that the name came up for a new startup company hoping to produce an electric roadster. Whoa!

Following that information, I then found out about the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? We bought a copy and watched it, and my jaw dropped to the floor. GM actually made such a vehicle? How come I never knew about it? Obviously they did not make the EV1 readily available in any way, shape, or form --despite their absurd assertation that there was "no demand." And then they crushed them all!!! Aaaaaaah!

I was so appalled that I immediately joined Plug-In America (http://www.pluginamerica.com/) and swore that my next car would be electric, come Hades or high-water. I have regularly researched anything and everything about EVs ever since, from the NmG (http://www.myersmotors.com/) to the Fisker Karma (http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/) --and everything in between. So when the Aptera first appeared in forums like AutoblogGreen (http://www.autobloggreen.com/) and TreeHugger (http://www.treehugger.com/cars_transportation/), I immediately checked it out --and have kept up with its development ever since.

What really grabbed my attention is how cool the vehicle looks: a true 21st century design, with the lowest drag coefficient of any car ever produced, a style that embodies the childhood fantasy I use as my avatar. I also love its simple, minimalist, yet functional cockpit. How I'd love to drive one down the road!

Too bad I can't reserve one yet, since we don't live in California...! Bummer. :( Well... maybe someday.

[ApteraFan]

I saw a brief mention of the Aptera either on AOL, or MSN as a new fuel efficient car. I then went to the website and within 10 minutes put a deposit down to reserve one. It was love at first sight.

[Apteratude]

MSN had a article on it late dec or early Jan.. At least that's when I saw it. Took me several days I think before it hit me. I'm #989. Think my deposit went through on the 7th of January.

dave

[MegaAutoBit]

I was introduced to Aptera when I say a blog regarding a recent press release on one of my favorite sites AutoBlogGreen.com. I quickly fell in love design, immediately spent the next two days researching Aptera, and reading every article posted. I soon after placed my order.

[qpham63]

As an HPV enthusiast in the mid 80s, I wanted an Aptera then.

I followed the E cars stuff for years but no one has done a blank sheet design. Everyone wanted a normal small car that did not have ICE but E in its place. YUK. I know that you can do well by improving aerodynamics and lower the weight.

I have personally built 3M diameter parabolic dishes for space that weighs 16 lbs out of Kevlar and Nomex honey comb core. I know that steel for a car is a bad material choice for efficiency. It is hard to compete price wise to steel but steel reaches in to your pocket everyday and take a little money so it cost you more in fuel in the long run.

I stopped tracking this stuff as I was focused in growing my company while still keeping my day job.

I normally do not like Mondays as a rule but when I checked my email and there were pictures of the Aptera and the production tool we were asked to quote, I started reading on it to make sure it is not some pipe dream and some artist's rendition...I promptly plunk down the $$$. It will be a company car and as we grow and hire people, they will get an Aptera as a part of compensation package if I can help it.

[butter]

It's funny, I couldn't even remember how I first heard about the Aptera, even though it's been less than a month from moment of discovery to handing over the $500.

After thinking really hard, I remembered googling "slipper genie" to find out more info on these silly looking but helpful slippers that have a microfiber cleaning material on the bottoms -- good for picking up dust as you walk around your hardwood floors.

I ended up on several different gadget pages, some that were specifically eco-friendly, others that simply focused on newfangled inventions coming down the pipeline.

After reading my fill of the slipper genie, the archived "related products" links caught my eye -- specifically some kind of vacuum cleaner for kids to ride on. I won't go into details.

After reading THAT fantasy invention blurb, I happened to see another thingy that looked interesting: Japanese high-powered super-quiet vacuum cleaners. That took me to a completely different website.

And I think there was another website after that, which ultimately led me accidentally to some other "futuristic gadgety" website that had the Aptera in one of its entries. I'm sure the item I originally read about on this final page was in the archived section, which is why Aptera was there on the same page.

Blahby blah blah.. so that's how I found out about Aptera. From researching the slipper genie.

amy

[RoxChkPlusOny]

That's a fantasmutic story!

[catmando]

www.gizmag.com

[AT802]

I googled three wheeled vehicle fall of 06

[Typ-1e, Slot #1685]

There's this guy at work who's a true maven (as described in Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, about how new ideas and trends are spread.) This guy is up on all kinds of things, most notably the latest music and political trends. He seems to always have his finger on the pulse of new things coming over the horizon. He knows I have a long commute and he sent me a link to aptera.com.

At first I just sat on it, thinking I would check them out once they started making them. But then I began to get a sense for the scarcity and I plunked down my $500 in March 2008.

[gg222]

Hey Bob, just sliped in ahead of you. Slot #1684, 3/28/08 at 1:41 PM. But you'll probably get yours before me, being yours is the Typ-1e. :(

[butter]

(Not to mention he's in Orange and you're in Novato.)

[garygid]

I saw it briefly on TV, and only caught "Carlsbad" and "Electric car".

However, that was enough to track it down, read the Aptera web site,
and read other information that all seemed positive. A few video clips,
more information gathering, showed it to my wife ("Wow, cool", she said,
"Go ahead, get one, you deserve it.") ... and so I put in a reservation.

Then, I called my friend and he put in a reservation also (actually, he
accidentally made two reservations, but he asked for (and got) a refund
on the extra reservation).

If Aptera manages to make it comfortable to drive (even for longer
trips), includes most of the creature comforts (at least good air
"refrigeration", and maybe power windows?), makes it as safe as
they can reasonably do, keep it down to "not too" expensive,
include no major flaws for both "normal" and "emergency" situations,
and still have quite good performance suitable for freeway driving ...
I am likely to snap one up.

I hope I get a chance to help them make it a really winning vehicle,
not just a compromise that most people would not take seriously.

Here, we have a lot of questions, suggestions, and conjecture.
But, at least we are covering most of the major points.

I can hardly wait for them to actually get far enough along with the
production design and prototypes to be able to release more info.

I think I am going to try and "model" it using SolidWorks, and see
if I can do a good enough job to "duplicate" most of their photos.
If I can, that might be enough to get a 12:1 model "kit" made.

[pk-sd]

Friend at work told me about it. It looked too good to be true, sodid not take it seriously, but kept showing Popular Mechanics video to others. Few weeks later I saw a story in the local news paper. Did some research for day and talked to my wife. My kids really liked the car, they thought it was cool. Next day me and my office mate put the deposit down.

[garygid]

Perhaps there will someday be a "Referral Reward" for those of
us who get others to sign up (and actually buy a car, of course).

When a person makes a Reservation, there should be a field to
enter "Referred By", and include the referring person's name or
Reservation number. Even a "Comment" or some kind of "Heard
About Aptera..." field would do, as long as the data gets stored
in the Aptera Reservation database for later use.

I suspect I could get a lot of folks to sign up,
especially after I actually have "my" Aptera.

[pk-sd]

Perhaps there will someday be a "Referral Reward" for those of
us who get others to sign up (and actually buy a car, of course).

When a person makes a Reservation, there should be a field to
enter "Referred By", and include the referring person's name or
Reservation number. Even a "Comment" or some kind of "Heard
About Aptera..." field would do, as long as the data gets stored
in the Aptera Reservation database for later use.

I suspect I could get a lot of folks to sign up,
especially after I actually have "my" Aptera.

Maybe we will get free oil changes !!!:D

[Don]

I first saw the Aptera on my home page. It was right there, making a statement ! I said to myself, 'self, that is the coolest design I have ever seen. How do I get one ? Since then, have researched and printed everything I could find about it. In my journey through the pages of the internet I have come across many more new electric vehicle designs, but none as striking as the Aptera.

[onugs]

It was on the front page of Yahoo "In the news" Stick a fork in it! That was it for me!

[basjoos]

I heard about it over a year ago when they were still Accelerated Composites.

[leevil]

My story is pretty similar to most peoples here. I saw something about a car that gets 330mpg on the Yahoo "in the news" section about a month ago or so. I've been pretty obsessed ever since. Watching all the youtube vids and researching other electric and hybrid vehicles. I stumbled onto this forum and I find myself checking it 3, 4 sometimes 5 times a day to see if there's any new info out there. I'm number 1446 and have opted for the type 1-h. I also find myself thinking about this thing NON STOP. I can't wait until I can take a tour of the facility and actually take a test drive. I'm going crazy here!!! I'm sure much like all of you reading this!!!

[dmtaub]

I actually heard about mine from my wife. Her professor at her university, Cal State, San Marcos, was talking about them. She showed me the website and I fell in love. I drive 60 miles a day and cannot wait to get into it. I'm even trying to pay off my car quicker so I can get rid of a gas guzzler and have it and get a hybrid.

I am so pysched


David
Aptera Typ 1h #1577

[Hockeynow70]

Every time I fill up at the pump, I'm reminded of my belief that an all electric drive system is the only way to go in the future for its simplicity, performance and flexibility. So I've been researching electric cars from time to time for several years. I also believe that battery-electric vehicles make the most sense because 1) there is no easier or more economical way to distribute energy than electricity and 2) the infrastructure to distribute electricity is already deployed across the nation and the world (it's running through the walls of our house and workplace). That being said, if everybody switches to electric cars, there will need to be some serious capacity upgrades. But at least the pilot infrastructure is in place, which is important for adoption of anything new. However, inferior battery technology has been the primary technology hurdle standing in the path of making battery-electric vehicles a practical reality....until now.

In recent years, I've been following new battery technology development, such as Altairnano's 'NanoSafe' battery, A123 Systems and the mysterious EEStor ultracapacitors. Particularly with the NanoSafe batteries, the technology (http://www.altairnano.com/markets_energy_systems.html) is now available to make battery-electric vehicles a PRACTICLE REALITY (http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/vehicles/retail-inquiry.php). So, in my quest to own my BE vehicle, I've been actively searching for the options, which currently include Phoenix Motorcars, Venture1 and the Aptera as the front-runners (Tesla is out of most people's budget league).

Due to its striking appearance and excellent efficiency, I've chosen the Aptera as the best candidate to express to the public that the day for the battery-electric vehicle has arrived. Now I'm just waiting for #1774 to arrive.

Chris