cts | Volt a Day | Disappointment September 22, 2010

I don't know. I think that I have to write and get my deposit back from Aptera. Trying to read between the lines it feels like the company was pinning its hopes on winning the X-Prize, a competition for high-efficiency cars. They didn't win.

Along the way they suffered some embarrassment, detailed a little in this article about the winners. That picture with the car's door open is explained in an article on the Consumer Reports website and was apparently a design issue (the button to open the door was close to the driver's knee; it has been moved for the production vehicle).

But it feels like the car is quite a long ways from production. And along the way it has gotten heavier and, somehow, less sexy. I guess it is becoming more of a "real car," but that's not really a good thing for the Aptera.

It reminds me that at this point the electric car market is a little like the aviation market. The number of customers is so small that the companies hoping for success will have to capture alarge portion of that market in order to win. In contrast, BMW is considered a successful car maker and has less than ten percent of the North American market. I don't believe Aptera will survive if it has that small a portion of the EV market.

The Aptera has had a rolling version of the car for a few years now. When I put down my deposit they said they would be in production in 2010 and delivering cars at the end of the second quarter. They no longer have any schedule about production on their website. it reminds me a lot of the Eclipse Very Light Jet. (Eclipse has gone out of business.) I think communication with your customers has to be at the top of the list when you have a small market.