Impressive auto

Hi Viatologists,

Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:

http://www.aptera.com

If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.

Cheers,

Carl Rogers
"Adding human experience to transportology"
********
Calrog.com, Worldwide Highway Library:
http://worldwide-hwys.calrog.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An integrated media arm in International Transportation Research. Has
served your home country and ninety-nine of its worldwide neighbours
since 2000, through Internet downstream and published works.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
********

Carl Rogers:

> Hi Viatologists,
>
> Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:

That sounds a little optimistic, IMO.

> http://www.aptera.com

Interesting. I look for Bush/Cheney and the oil cartels to be looking
high and low for a way to keep these off the roads. Then again, being
a plug in, doesn't that just shift the energy sourcing (and pollution)
from the gas station and car to the home and the power plants?

Seriously, I can't wait for these to make their debut on the east
coast. It looks like a nice daily commuter car for single people like
me (will probably turn a few heads around here too)...

> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience,

Will they take Euros?

> California residency and a

What's to stop me from flying out to CA, buying one (when production
starts) and driving it back to GA?

> sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah...

Can't wait...

> No--it does not fly.

Dang!

--
N eed
A
S ober
A stronaut

On Jan 31, 2:10 am, Carl Rogers > wrote:
> Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
>
> http://www.aptera.com
>
> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
> sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.

Interesting stuff. I'll peruse this link at a later time.
A friend sent me another link on the topic a while back...
http://www.popularmechanics.com/auto...html?series=19

On Jan 31, 2:10*am, Carl Rogers > wrote:
> Hi Viatologists,
>
> Wow... *Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
>
> http://www.aptera.com
>
> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
> sense of adventure, have at it! *Oh yeah... *No--it does not fly.
>

This was discussed in a recent thread, although you may have missed it
as it was infested by eco-trolls.

1) the 300 MPG number includes running off of a battery that was
charged by plugging in, and is computed over the vehicle's entire
range until the battery is depleted. Still gets impressive mileage,
but not really 300 MPG.

2) range is limited.

3) only carries two passengers and a modicum of luggage

4) probably does not meet federal crash standards; I'm ASSuming that
Aptera isn't planning on selling enough that they can't use a "low
volume manufacturer" exception. I may be wrong on this, and would be
happy to be proven so, but I'm guessing that that is one of the ways
they were able to realize real economy benefits. Of course, a
consequence of this is, if they ever get popular, they'll have to
either artificially limit sales or else radically redesign their
product to make it less appealing to conform to safety regs.

Personally, I think it's a kick-ass toy, but remains just that, a
toy. when the price of a used 944 is about 1/10 that of the Aptera,
and the 944 has a semi-usable back seat and 3-plus times the range,
it's a no-brainer for me to keep what I got, even if I do pay a little
more for fuel. That said, if someone gave me an Aptera, I think it'd
be a giggle.

nate

In article
>,
Carl Rogers > wrote:

> Hi Viatologists,
>
> Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
>
> http://www.aptera.com
>
> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
> sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.

ZAP, a maker of electric vehicles, just announced a car that looks
almost identical to this one, with the same specs, estimated delivery
date and price. I wonder if Aptera made a deal to have ZAP market their
car.

Merritt

In article
>,
Carl Rogers > wrote:

> Hi Viatologists,
>
> Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
>
> http://www.aptera.com
>
> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
> sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.

And...

....oh, yeah...

....the production model doesn't exist and as of now has no firm
introduction date.

They don't even have the funding to build the production facilities yet.

>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Rogers
> "Adding human experience to transportology"
> ********
> Calrog.com, Worldwide Highway Library:
> http://worldwide-hwys.calrog.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> An integrated media arm in International Transportation Research. Has
> served your home country and ninety-nine of its worldwide neighbours
> since 2000, through Internet downstream and published works.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ********

--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
"If you raise the ceiling four feet, move the fireplace from that wall
to that wall, you'll still only get the full stereophonic effect if you
sit in the bottom of that cupboard."

Alan Baker > writes:

> In article
> >,
> Carl Rogers > wrote:
>
> > Hi Viatologists,
> >
> > Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
> > who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
> >
> > http://www.aptera.com
> >
> > If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
> > sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.
>
> And...
>
> ...oh, yeah...
>
> ...the production model doesn't exist and as of now has no firm
> introduction date.
>
> They don't even have the funding to build the production facilities yet.

Better, check out <http://www.aptera.com/details.php>, which claims the
mileage drops with how far you drive, going to an asymptotic value of
130 miles per gallon. This sounds crazy, but what they seem to be
doing is measuring on-board fuel consumption and not counting the
energy stored in the battery as part of the fuel.

It's basically a three-wheel electric or hybrid motorcycle with a
faring to cut air drag, and seems to be able to seat two people.
You can plug it in to recharge the battery.

-
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB

In article >,
N8N > wrote:
>
>4) probably does not meet federal crash standards; I'm ASSuming that
>Aptera isn't planning on selling enough that they can't use a "low
>volume manufacturer" exception.

It's only got three wheels, so they call it a motorcycle to get around
crash standards.

Not that I have a problem with that; too many requirements cause
stagnation. You can't build the "next best thing" because the
requirements were written for the previous best thing.
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.

Matthew T. Russotto wrote:
> In article >,
> N8N > wrote:
>
>>4) probably does not meet federal crash standards; I'm ASSuming that
>>Aptera isn't planning on selling enough that they can't use a "low
>>volume manufacturer" exception.
>
>
> It's only got three wheels, so they call it a motorcycle to get around
> crash standards.
>
> Not that I have a problem with that; too many requirements cause
> stagnation. You can't build the "next best thing" because the
> requirements were written for the previous best thing.

I agree 100% - we've got too much regulation already.

I think if I ever went back to work in an automotive type environment it
would have to be in motorsports - too many constraints on design for
roadgoing cars. Oh, and the US auto industry probably isn't hiring now
anyway, so it's a moot point.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Bill Z. wrote:
> Alan Baker > writes:
>
>> In article
>> >,
>> Carl Rogers > wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Viatologists,
>>>
>>> Wow... Here's an outfit out of Carlsbad, Calif. (outside San Diego)
>>> who reportedly offers a car capable of 300 MPG:
>>>
>>> http://www.aptera.com
>>>
>>> If you've got $30,000 (USD), patience, California residency and a
>>> sense of adventure, have at it! Oh yeah... No--it does not fly.
>> And...
>>
>> ...oh, yeah...
>>
>> ...the production model doesn't exist and as of now has no firm
>> introduction date.
>>
>> They don't even have the funding to build the production facilities yet.
>
> Better, check out <http://www.aptera.com/details.php>, which claims the
> mileage drops with how far you drive, going to an asymptotic value of
> 130 miles per gallon. This sounds crazy, but what they seem to be
> doing is measuring on-board fuel consumption and not counting the
> energy stored in the battery as part of the fuel.
>
> It's basically a three-wheel electric or hybrid motorcycle with a
> faring to cut air drag, and seems to be able to seat two people.
> You can plug it in to recharge the battery.

Yea, but how much will it cost and how much coal will be burned to recharge
the battery when you plug it in?

--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________