Introduction of the long-awaited Aptera 2e all-electric three-wheel vehicle has been delayed until sometime next year, a quarter of its small workforce has been laid off and its co-founders have taken leaves - one of them permanently - as the company slogs through a painfully slow private financing campaign it had hoped to close by now.
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Aptera 2e prototypes sit on company's new assembly line earlier this year. Aptera has pushed previously planned 2009 introduction to 2010 because of financial woes.
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In a statement issued this morning in response to reports earlier in the week that it had canned its co-founders and laid off a large portion of its staff, Aptera CEO Paul Willbur said "we now have to adjust our production schedule to align with financial realities."
He didn't address reports of layoffs and board-ordered ousters of Aptera founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, but confirmed that Fambro has taken a leave of absence and Anthony has severed his day-to-day connection with the company.
Apetera marketing director Marques McCammon confirmed in an interview with Green Car Advisor that the company has laid off 10 of its 40 employees.
The financial realities Wilbur referred to include a slowdown in the pace of private financing as investors wait to see which of the nation's entrepreneurial advance vehicle makers will be bolstered by large, low-interest federal funding from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
Private Capital Eroded by Production Delays, Aptera Now Waits Federal Loan OK
The co-founders of Aptera Motors reportedly have been ousted in a shakeup that includes numerous layoffs.
Former Tesla motors PR chief-turned-consultant Daryl Siry, writing for Wired.com, reported Sunday that sources at the San Diego-based company told him Aptera co-founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony have been dismissed, apparently because of substantial conflicts with the new management team they brought in last year.
A spokesman for Aptera told Green Car Advisor this morning that "something is up" but said he was unable to offer more.
Aptera marketing director Marques McCammon told Wired that Fambro has taken a voluntary eave of absence to help save money. The article said Anthony's status was unclear.
The reported shakeup comes as Aptera is awaiting word on its application for several million in federally guaranteed loans under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
Siry writes in Wired that the rift apparently grew as the team assembled under Paul Wilbur, Aptera's new president and chief executive, discovered that the three-wheeled, aircraft-styled electric vehicle Fambro and Anthony had designed wasn't ready for the market.
Wilbur told Green Car Advisor early this year that a number of changes from the original design had been ordered to make the vehicle more marketable. Some some cosmetic and some safety-oriented. One, the decision to use roll-down side windows instead of the original fixed windows, necessitated a lengthy and expensive re-engneering of a large part of the door assembly.
Wilbur's team decided last year to delay production of the Apteraluntil late this year to make sure the car would satisfy consumers, but the delay reportedly has eaten through most of the $24 million in private capital Fambro and Anthony raised just before hiring Wilbur.
The funding came from topnotch investors, including Google and IdeaLab, unlikely to be willing to watch idly as an internal rift grew.
Siry reports that Wilbur and his team opted to wind things down and lay off employees to pare expenses while waiting for the anticipated government loan to come through, while Fambro and Anthony argued for forgetting the engineering changes and building and releasing cars as they were initially designed.
Aptera's board reportedly came down on Wilbur's side.
President Obama has, as expected, signed a bill extending eligibility for federal Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program loans to certain fuel-efficient, three-wheeled vehicles, and Aptera, for one, isn't wasting any time.
---------- Aptera 2e prototype being tested early this year. ----------
The Southern California-based vehicle developer and would-be manufacturer of the three-wheel, wingless-aircraft shaped Aptera 2e, said it is updating its previously rejected application for a $75 million loan from the program that would help finance its anticipated 2010 manufacturing launch.
The Senate has approved a measure directing the Energy Department to extend advanced vehicle research and development funding programs to manufacturers of three-wheeled vehicles as well as to the conventional car and truck industries.
The bill, already approved by the House, now goes to the President for his signature.
To qualify, three-wheelers would have to meet the federal safety standards applied to four-wheel vehicles.
Aptera prototypes at assembly plant in Southern California early this year.
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It expands eligibility for the federal advanced tech vehicle loan program to include fully enclosed vehicles designed to carry at least two adults and that average at least 75 miles per gallon or the equivalent.
The Energy Department also would have to reconsider applications filed last year that were rejected because the vehicles didn't qualify.
Aptera has said it has taken more than 4,000 deposits ($500 each) for its Aptera 2e battery-electric three-wheeler and has applied for a $75 million low-interest loan from the federal program to help it begin mass production next year.
Another company that applied last year and was rebuked is Elio Motors, which has said it plans to start marketing a narrow, gasoline-powered three-wheeler by the spring of 2011.
Aptera Motors, Elio Motors and other companies developing fuel-efficient three-wheeled vehicles got a boost from Congress this week in their quest for federal funding.
Legislation to make three-wheeled vehicles eligible for Energy Department loans passed a conference committee of House and Senate leaders Wednesday and then got approval from the full House on Thursday.
It is part of an energy spending bill likely to go before the Senate by next week for final congressional passage, a Senate aide said.
"Obsolete bureaucratic definitions should not create roadblocks and stifle innovation," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who co-sponsored the legislation.
If the Senate passes the bill, it would have to be signed by President Barack Obama to become law.
General Motors Co. has been critical of the bill.
The Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program is intended for large automakers that make many cars and that have the potential for large gasoline savings, the company has said.
GM spokesman Greg Martin declined comment on the latest development.
GM has applied for three department loans totaling more than $10 billion.
The maker of the all-electric three-wheeled vehicle called the 2e (right), which is slated to enter production in coming weeks, wants Washington will view the vehicle as an automobile for the purposes of federal funding.
However, Aptera also wants the federal government to continue to classify the 2e as a motorcycle for the purposes of crash testing. That's because the government does not require motorcycles to pass vigorous crash tests as it does vehicles classified as automobiles.
The 3-year-old closely held company located in Vista, California, wants to borrow $75 million from a Department of Energy program created by Congress in 2007 to speed development of fuel-efficient cars.
But the DOE ruled last year that the plug-in electric 2e didn't qualify under the $25 billion loan program. A three-wheeled vehicle doesn't meet the definition of an automobile under federal law as being "any 4-wheeled vehicle," according to a letter to Aptera last December from Lachlan Seward, the loan program's director.
"We were dismayed," Paul Wilbur, Aptera's chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal in an article published today. Wilbur said the absence of a fourth wheel was critical to maximizing the vehicle's aerodynamics.
Aptera's backers include some big-money donors to the Democratic Party, and its quest for help has received a boost from a group of mostly California lawmakers who want to help a home-state enterprise. Allies of Detroit's big automakers are lined up against them.
The public is invited to attend two major plug-in electric vehicle events in California in coming days.
The more newsworthy of the two will likely be the Plug-In 2009 Exposition held at the Long Beach Convention Center. It's there that green-car reporters from around the world will descend for more than three days of speeches, discussions and demonstrations revolving around plug-in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The public is invited to attend a slice of the event - from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The public portion will consist of vehicle displays (Chevy Volt, Ford 550 plug-in hybrid truck, Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, and a plug-in Toyota Prius to name a few), followed by a panel discussion.
Panelists will include: Peter Horton, writer/director, "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Philanthropist"; Bill Nye, "The Science Guy"; Chris Paine, director, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "Revenge of the Electric Car"; Chelsea Sexton, founder, The Lightning Rod Foundation and a former General Motors EV1 specialist.
Cost is $10 and tickets can be purchased at the door. Visit the Plug In 2009 Website for additional information.
The lovelier of the two events will be the 2nd Annual Benefit Party for Plug In America, a respected nonprofit organization that promotes PEVs and PHEVs, held this coming Sunday from 4 p.m. till 8 p.m. at the Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside.
Among the vehicles on hand will be the pre-production Aptera 2e, a Tesla Roadster, a BMW Mini E, a Tango, a Tzero, an A123 Hymotion Prius conversion, electric motorcycles from Mission Motors and Zero Motorcycles, plus some one-off conversions and plenty of RAV4 EVs.
The event, titled "Plug-Ins, Pinots and Progress," will make for an excellent and informative afternoon-evening and, as benefits often do, will contain a spectacular auctions portion. Among the items that will be going to the block: a week's stay at a Hawaiian resort for 2-3 people, a Zero X electric motorcycle, and an A123/Hymotion L5 Plug-in Conversion Module (a $10,000 value) for all you Prius owners.
Bids can be submitted online. Tickets to the event start at $120. Visit the Plug In America Website for more information.
Jay Leno isn't easily impressed, but in a recent episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" the comedian, talk-show host and car aficionado had nothing but great things to say about the Aptera 2e battery-electric vehicle.
In an on-camera interview with Aptera President and CEO Greg Wilbur, Leno said the "problem with most electrics is that they look dorky. You know, they just have that kinda Volkswagen that's been gutted and put an electric motor in.
"This is a car that from the ground up was designed to be an electric car and was designed to be as aerodynamic as a car can possibly be. This is an exciting-looking vehicle. It looks like it's going 200 miles an hour just sitting still."
Leno invites Wilbur to discuss the vehicle's aerodynamics and light weight (a mere 1,700 pounds) and, as he often does when sizing up a modern battery-electric vehicle, he compares it to his century-old Baker Electric. Wilbur does a nice job of presenting the 2e's talking points.
One of the first things Leno notes is that the front-wheel-drive Aptera has only three wheels and is viewed by Uncle Sam as a motorcycle, yet the government doesn't require its driver to wear a helmet (or obtain a motorcycle license).
"What you're actually driving here is a helmet. You're actually sitting in a helmet. The whole thing is a helmet, in other words," Leno remarks, displaying some of the uncommon perspective that has served him well as a comedian.
We've written extensively on the Aptera 2e, but the 10-minute video is worth watching as much for the chuckles as anything else.
Dismayed to discover that its three-wheeled electric commuter vehicle won't qualify for federal green car manufacturing loans under present policies, California-based Aptera Motors says it is heading to Washington to try to get the rules changed.
The company says it wants a level playing field so it can competitively manufacture its teardrop-shaped, lightweight Aptera 2e(left). The vehicle, still in the per-production prototype stage of development, can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge of its batteries and deliver the fuel efficiency equivalent of 200 miles per gallon.
Aptera has slated production to begin at its North San Diego County headquarters and assembly facility in October.
But the federal Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program, which has $25 billion to foster manufacturing of the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles, is only open to applicants that make automobiles and related components.
By law, the Aptera and other three-wheeled vehicles are motorcycles, not cars, and thus not eligible for the loan program.
"We've received financial backing from funders like Google and IdeaLab, and now we'd like to tell our story of breakthrough aerodynamic design and efficiency on Capitol Hill," Aptera President and CEO Paul Wilbur (right) said in a statement released late Thursday evening.
"Aptera can change everyday commuter driving forever, and even though we're a relative newcomer, we're confident our vision, purpose and results will compel federal lawmakers to rally around our cause and embrace efficiency in federal policy," said Wilbur, a former Chrysler executive who also headed independent automaker Saleen and components manufacturer ASC Technologies.
Wilbur's Washington itinerary is unclear. But his plea for inclusion of the battery-electric Aptera 2e in the federal advanced-vehicle funding program has won backing from two California congressmen, which should help open doors.
The Aptera's aerodynamic shape represents a new way of looking at private vehicles, company says
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(Note: Link to Aptera 2e First Drive Reveiw and expanded video added March 25, 2008)
By John O'Dell,Senior Editor
We've been following the development of the automotive world's wingless bird fairly closely, and bugging the management team at Aptera to come let us try its unusually styled, three-wheel electric vehicle.
Monday was the day, but as we headed down the freeway toward Aptera's digs in the San Diego County community of Vista, we did so with a sinking feeling that the anticipated driving experience would be short at best.
It turned out to be non-existent - drowned out by that most rare of Southern California climatological occurrences, a genuine winter rainstorm.
Which made us wonder - if the Aptera 2e is supposed to be a replacement for the daily commuter car, should a little rain (a couple of inches, actually) be a problem?
Marques McCammon, Aptera's chief marketing office, said "no," the production model won't be bothered by weather.
But the Aptera 2e we'd been promised the chance to drive isn't quite ready for prime time - it is a pre-production model with door seals that aren't quite weatherproof and the company didn't want to soak the interior.
It went unsaid, but there's also the distinct possibility that the prototype, worth about $500,000, was deemed too valuable to be turned over to a hot-footed journalist when the streets were half-an-inch deep in running water.
Test Drive Coming
So we extracted the promise of a return engagement - with driving privileges - when it dries out later this week. (The first drive review with an expanded video of the Aptera 2e in action is now available on Inside Line.)
Notice, btw, that we say "vehicle, not "car." That's because the Aptera isn't a car: It is classified as a motorcycle because cars, by law, must have four wheels.
While we didn't get to drive, our day down in Vista was profitably spent anyhow.
For one thing, our video crew shot this first look at the prototype 2e ("2" for two-passenger, "e" for electric) inside Aptera's new production facility.
Dream Team
We also got a lot of face time with the company's new trinity: President and Chief Executive Paul Wilbur, Chief Engineer Tom Reichenbach and McCammon. All three have solid automaking credentials and were recruited out of Detroit last year to take Aptera from start-up to production.
(Wilbur's resume includes four years at Ford, 17 at Chrysler, and six at ASC, where he also was CEO of Saleen; Reichenbach, a longtime Ford racing engineer, was in charge of aerodynamics for the Ford GT, and McCammon helped start Chrysler's SRT performance brand before joining ASC and Saleen.)
Talk to them for a while and you get the feeling that if the stars are aligned right, the economy doesn't complete its impersonation of a runaway reactor core sinking deep into the center of the earth and someone doesn't discover that lithium batteries give you cancer, then little white Apteras will start showing up in garages all over California by the end of next fall.
The company - which initially is limiting sales to California in order to ensure tight control over quality and drivability factors before going nationwide with the vehicle - says that more than 4,000 people have plunked down refundable $500 deposits.
If all indeed go through with their purchases, the last of the 4,000 vehicles should be done and delivered by the end of 2010, said Wilbur
As more orders come in and expansion follows, he said, the plan is to go slow to about 10,000 a year after a few years, ratcheting up to perhaps 100,000 a year at peak in or around 2015.
Solid Market
McCammon insists that those numbers aren't a pipe dream: that market studies done for the company by San Diego-based Strategic Vision show "our market potential is in the hundreds of thousands a year," as more and more people decide to opt out of conventional gasoline- and diesel-fueled cars for environmental, economic and/or national energy-security reasons
That's a far cry from the "maybe 5,000 to 10,000, total," that company co-founder Steve Fambro was thinking when he considered production and sales goals for the company he conceived of in 2006.
That's why Fambro brought in Wilbur and his team and went back into the lab, so to speak, where he continues to serve Aptera as the chief technical officer: He did what too many entrepreneurial visionaries can't do and turned the reins over to more experienced business types who actually have to tools to make a small company grow.
It's one of the things that makes it possible to see Aptera as an upstart personal-vehicle maker with a future.
Another indicator will come soon. Aptera has been running on $30 million in initial funding obtained from individual investors, Idealab and Google.org, and, Wilbur said, hasn't spent much of that so far.
But going into production takes big bucks, so the company has just begun a new financing effort and is aiming at venture capitalists, sovereign investment funds from wealthy nations and other private equity sources. How well it does will tell a lot about is chances for success.
Ride Along
While we can't yet tell you how the 2e drives, we can report that the vehicle is a lot smaller and closer to the ground than in looks in the pictures we've seen and posted to date; that it is wide enough so that its side-by-side bucket seats comfortably fit two good-sized American males; and that even a guy with a pinched sciatic nerve can get in and out with relative ease.
We didn't drive, but we did get a short, circular ride around the floor of the assembly area and we can say with assurance that the Aptera 2e sounds and rides just like a lot of other prototype electric vehicles we've been in - quite quick from the get-go, that quickness accompanied by an electric whine and the rumble-whoosh of tires on pavement.
The vehicle seems to be quite stable - we'll know more when we get it out on the road - the configuration of two wheels up front and one in the rear providing a solid footing.
Aptera Motors, which recently confirmed a 10-month delay in production
of its three-wheeled electric vehicle, the 2e, said today that it has rolled out the first pre-production model (right)
on schedule,
The white two-seat commuter vehicle features Aptera's unusual cycle-fendered design and looks a lot like the fuselage of a small airplane - sans wings and tail.
Aptera said that the battery-electric vehicle is "the first of a burgeoning fleet" of pre-production models that will be evaluated for performance, durability and fit and finish prior to start of retail production in October.
The company said the front-wheel drive Aptera 2e will use a lithium-ion battery pack, have a top speed of 90 miles an hour and a zero to 60 mph acceleration time of less than six seconds yet will achieve the equivalent of 200 miles per gallon and a range of 100 miles on a fully charged battery pack.
The company said that it has received more than 4,000 deposits for the 2e, which is expected to start at about $25,000 and could cost some buyers as high as $45,000 with various options.
Initial sales will be limited to California, with a national rollout planned for late 2010, the company said.
Like most other start-up carmakers, especially those trying to make a go of it in the present economic turmoil, would-be EV-maker Aptera has experienced its share of delays.
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Aptera's unusual design for a lightweight EV borrows from aircraft engineering and sci-fi movies.
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The company recently said it now is looking at a late 2009 retail launch of its first model, the three-wheel Aptera 2e - previously called the Typ-1. That's almost a year after the previously announced goal of a retail launch by the end of 2008.
Now, in a letter to Aptera customers, a copy of which was sent to Green Car Advisor by an outside source, the San Diego-based company sets down the reasons for the delay and lays out its new timetable in some detail.
The letter makes it clear that while Aptera's founding team may have been adept at designing and engineering a working prototype electric vehicle, it hasn't had much experience developing a car that actually meets the wants and needs of consumers.
Although initial plans called for retail deliveries to have begun a week or so ago, the letter informs Aptera customers who've placed $500 deposits with the company that the very first production model now will roll off the line Jan. 16, a little more than a week from now.
Electric-car maker Aptera
said it has recruited former Saleen general manager Marques McCammon as its new chief marketing officer.
---------- Aptera hopes to begin selling its battery-electric 2e model next year. ----------
Brand consultant Tony Kirton had been filling that post and will continue working with McCammon as a consultant, the San Diego County company said.
Recruiting from performance car specialist Saleen, which has had its ups and downs lately, isn't a new experience for Aptera. Company President and CEO Paul Wilbur, hired in September, is a Saleen alumnus.
Aptera, which received a $2.75 million cash infusion from Google's green-tech investment arm this summer, says it will roll out its first retail vehicle, the $27,000, battery-electric Aptera 2e, later next year and recently opened a second facility for production of the battery-electric vehicle.
The three-wheeled, two-seat EV looks a lot like a small plane sans wings and tail - a design that maximizes aerodynamics, says company co-founder and chief technology officer Steve Fambro.
It is considered a motorcycle under state law and is not subject to the stringent safety regulations a four-wheeled vehicle must meet in order to be sold, although Aptera says on its website that the vehicle's doors and roof structure exceed required safety standards for passenger cars.
Aptera says the vehicle will achieve the energy consumption equivalent of 300 miles per gallon of gasoline yet will offer speedy acceleration and sporty handling.
McCammon, said Fambro, was recruited for his "automotive experience, business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit."
In addition to his work at Saleen, McCammon, 32, was part of the team at independent design and components company ASC that developed the ASC Helios 4-door convertible concept. Wilbur also worked at ASC.
Aptera Motors, producer of a three-wheeled electric vehicle, announced today that the company has hired automotive industry veteran Paul Wilbur as its president and chief executive officer.
Wilbur brings 26 years of automotive experience to the Carlsbad, California, startup, ranging from product planning and finance to marketing and product development for Ford and Chrysler.
Most recently, Wilbur was the chief executive of Saleen, a leading manufacturer of high performance cars and trucks, and president and CEO of Detroit-based American Specialty Cars, a tier-1 supplier of open air and convertible roof systems.
"We have searched long and hard for exactly the right leader to help us fulfill the promise of this vehicle," stated Steve Fambro, co-founder and chief technical officer of Aptera. "Paul Wilbur is that leader."
Aptera, which was to begin production of its fuel-efficient EV (left)
early this year, now says it will begin limited production in Southern California and is looking for a high-volume assembly plant location in Southern states.
The company recently began taking reservations for the vehicle, but there's no word on when production of it will begin.
RechargeIT, a unit Google.org started to "accelerate the commercialization of plug-in vehicles," invested $2.75 million in Aptera two months ago.
Plans call for the EV to be available in a $27,000 battery-electric model and a $30,000 gasoline-electric series hybrid -- a gas engine will make the juice for an electric motor that propels the vehicle once the battery's charge is depleted.
With established rent-a-car companies reporting that they are having trouble meeting customer demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, a Southern California company has begun renting nothing but hybrid vehicles.
Business has been brisk at Eqocar in Burbank since it opened its doors three months ago, General Manager Nick Hamed told Green Car Advisor today. Hamed said Eqocar, which rents only hybrid vehicles, is in talks to open four more rental-car centers, all in California.
Eventually, the company would like to expand nationwide, Hamed said.
Eqocar has a fleet of 45 hybrids, which include the Toyota Prius, Camry and Highlander hybrids, Ford Escape Hybrid, Lexus LS600h L, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe hybrids, and the Nissan Altima hybrid. Daily rates range from $59 for the Prius to $650 for the LS600h L.
There are plans to add the extended-range plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt, hybrid versions of the Smart Fortwo, Chrysler Aspen, Cadillac Escalade, and Porsche Cayenne and Panamera, as well as the Tesla and Fisker plug-in sports cars and the bubbled-faced three-wheel Aptera to the rental fleet, Hamed said.
The Aptera is reminiscent of vehicles appearing in The Jetsons, a futuristic cartoon series produced during 1962 and '63.
We hear a lot of doubt when the subject of Aptera Motors and its odd-looking, three-wheeled EV is raised around the office.
But the company and search engine giant Google has announced that Google's green tech investment arm has just pumped some of its money into Aptera.
The $2.75 million investment was made by RechargeIT, a unit Google.org started to "accelerate the commercialization of plug-in vehicles."
Google.org, if you are trying to keep score here, is Google's philanthropic arm.
"We've been looking for top entrepreneurs working to find innovative transportation solutions, and we're delighted to include Aptera Motors among those innovative companies we're supporting," said Karl Sun, a Google.org investments principal.
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By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
