1930 Mercedes-Benz “Count Trossi” SSK-The Design of the Future from about a eighty years ago.
Aptera is the latest in a long, long line of cars that sort of don’t look like cars at all. Bucky Fuller had his famous Dymaxion, a three wheeled car that could turn on a dime and was as big as a bus. On Antiques Roadshow there was a man who had a prototype model for a car that looks very much like the three wheel Aptera Typ-1.
The Aptera Typ-1 is registered as a motorcycle, so maybe the Smart Car can keep it’s title as the world’s smallest car. The speed on the Aptera will exceed 85 mph, going from 0-60 in under 10 second, according to their website. Always good to know you can go well above the speed limit in a vehicle that looks like an airplane with the wings removed. But they say it is safe. Well, duh, what else would they say?
The Aptera is supposed to sell for about $30,000 dollars and get about 230 miles to the gallon. They say it has 120 mile range for the electric Aptera. They are only going to sell it in California to start with. Which makes sense, as California is the place where everyone is really concerned about the air and the environment and like that. Since the Aptera would be the perfect work commute vehicle I will be interested in seeing if that is how it will be used. The website says that while using the electric engine on the hybrid you will be getting close to a thousand miles a gallon, but once you start to actually burn your fuel, it will drop down to about 400 miles per gallon. That sounds pretty cool.
All of the info for the Aptera is fun, you can watch a video of the Aptera on Popular Mechanics.
