Production goal of 30 per day

[3-4-me]

I found this article,from Sept. '07, and thought this quote was pretty interesting.

Apteras can roll off the manufacturing line in about a year, said Fambro, a resident of Carlsbad, and business partner Chris Anthony of Mira Mesa ---- if the company can raise $20 million to $40 million. Their goal is to make 30 Apteras a day, selling for less than $30,000 each.
At that rate, I might actually see #976 by next year:D
Lets all keep our fingers crossed.

Here's a link to the whole article.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/26/business/news/7_01_009_25_07.prt

[Aptera#965]

30 per day :eek:

Wow that sounds great; a little optimistic perhaps. But if it's anywhere close to that then we won't have to wait too long for ours once they begin hybrid production.

I just hope they get supply sources sorted out so there are no parts shortages :)

[Yanquetino]

Wow! That's encouraging to hear that Steve thinks they could manufacture up to 30 Apteras per day! :) That's a lot more than I would have imagined. After all, over at Tesla they talk about a maximum of only 100 Roadsters per month at the Lotus factory. :p

On the other hand, in the interview Steve does drop that tiny disclaimer with the huge definition: "if". And $20 to $40 million isn't exactly spare change! :eek: With about 1,000 orders placed, the deposits amount to only a half-million at best. Obviously, they are going to have to gather lots of investments from venture capitalists to pull it off. Given the recent media attention, however, and the fact that more investors are becoming increasingly sold on "green" technology, maybe that won't prove so hard right now as it did, say, two years ago. I sure hope so!

[typ-1h]

This is a vision of the future and definately something that the company is working towards, however, initial production will most likely not be so rapid.

[3-4-me]

typ-1h,
You seem to have alot of inside info. Are you associated with Aptera?
How many units can be produced in a day at this time?
Roughly how many parts to a car.(Not counting incidentals, ie trim screws etc)?

[3-4-me]

Thanks for the reply.
Three people, three days, that's still pretty good.
An assembly line workforce would definitly pump them out.

[Aptera#965]

Yes thanks for the contibutions typ-1h. You have provided us with some valuable info.

Please feel free to divulge any more juicy tidbits as we are all chomping at the bit to learm more about what's coming.

Are you 'close' to the project on a daily basis and able to get constant updates by any chance? ;)

[typ-1h]

The problem with an "assembly line workforce" is worker alienation. While it is somewhat more efficient the end product is almost always of less quality when assembled this way.

[Aptera#965]

I should be officially joining the Aptera team sometime next week.

Awesome - we have someone on the "inside" :D :D :D

I want to wish you good luck; we're all counting on you....... :p

[cogito]

Hoping when Aptera gets closer to production they don’t have the problems Tesla is having. They just had another wave of firings, 16 more people.

http://origin.mercurynews.com/healthandscience/ci_7937510?nclick_check=1

The Tesla is based on a car already in production and built by an established car company, Lotus. I know about the transmission problems, but I must be missing something. Aptera will build a car from scratch, seems a lot more work.

[3-4-me]

You're link wouldn't work for me.

It seems to me that Aptera is taking a much more simplistic approach.
From what I've seen, the components seem alot more modular.

[KarenRei]

With about 1,000 orders placed, the deposits amount to only a half-million at best.

That's not really what the deposits are for. Those deposits say, "1000+ people in California alone are really serious about owning one of our cars and they haven't even hit the streets yet. Pony up some VC and you'll make a hefty profit."

[LQUAN]

I am not surprise if Tesla don't sell many cars. What millionare would sink money in a $100K electric car when they have options such as Porches, Lamboghini, and Ferrari. You think they care more about saving gas than convenient? If Tesla is smart, they would invest into making cars that 99.9% of the population can afford. I am glad Aptera is heading into the right direction in term of affordability and eco-friendly.

Li-ion batteries in high performance cars don't last long. Those cars would likely work their batteries to their premature death. Believe me, I know. I used to fly radio control electric model foam airplanes and small helicopters as a hobby. $75 Li-Po battery life span in a RC helicopter is 50-55 cycles, where the same battery in foam airplanes is 300+ cycles. Simply because the propellers on helicopters is 15 times heavier and spin at higher rpm than airplanes. Just my own 2cents.

[RoxChkPlusOny]

I don't know all the science behind it, but I suspect the measure of how hard the battery is getting worked has to do with wattage. I don't know the numbers, either, but if someone does, we can get cranking. Requiring more total energy will not kill your batteries if you simply have more of them, for example.

I think Tesla's going to do fine. They're stationed right where they will do well - in the heart of bobo (Burgeoisie-Bohemian) and hippie land. There will be enough buys to set Tesla up for the WhiteStar and then their compact. Meanwhile, poorer Joes like me wait in line for the also-uber-cool Aptera :)

[KarenRei]

Tesla can draw up to 185kW. It has 56 kWh of laptop batteries (LiCoO2).

[LQUAN]

Tesla can draw up to 185kW. It has 56 kWh of laptop batteries (LiCoO2).

No kidding. That means the batteries are very hot after a few minutes of runtime. Li-Po that I used in my RC aircrafts are very hot, sometimes even to hold bare hand, after 8 minutes of fly time. Li-Po can discharge so much current, up to 25C, that it swell 25% its normal size after 8 minutes of discharging 15C.