Nice whip TK. I for the life of me do not understand why electric cars were killed off. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could pick one up for less than 20k and could get more than 100 miles out of it.
same reason they dont allow hemp to be grown in the states...
with hemp you can make
clothing
rope
car panels
plastics
food
protein
etc....
it's a capitalist economy in the states..... money money money
if the electric car was actually allowed, then the gas/manufacturing industry would suffer....but then again would it
most of the time a car company will buy off a patent just so it cant be used....i.e. electric car....einsteins atom energy that was used in the atomic bomb/etc....
Wouldn't an inverted airfoil imply that it's held *down* at speed ? I wonder if they wind-tunnel-tested this baby. It actually looks like there's more of a normal airfoil shape to the "fuselage". . .?
the company was started in some guys garage - think it was in cali, maybe san diego way. not many clues on their website so I did some googling yesterday.
Apurimac – have you watched "who killed the electric car"?
TK – quite an advantage seeing that the aptera is $72K less than the tesla! Although I still have my heart set on the tesla. Its been on my wish list for quite some time…
i'm very interested in the aptera. i'm getting my driver's license in june, and i hope to get the aptera as my first car. . . just some advice, though: the wheels jutting out, which reminds me of a plymouth prowler, is less than amazing...i'd rather have the wheels close in to the car, other than that i love aptera.
Yeah, and I guess frequent roll-overs won't be too annoying. . .
Oh, yeah ! That's sweet. Unusual to see a show car on a live course ?
The interesting thing is how long it takes to go from student dream to real life; one could have seen very similar renderings and small clay models thirty years ago. Does the industry drag its feet in order to have "something for next year" ?
I've decided that I need a new car next fall. the aptera is still haunting my mind - just not sure if I'll be able to swing the $30k price for the plug in hybrid. Oh, I'd have to move to CA to get one...
ugh. I wouldn't want to scrape ice off of the windshields of either car posted!
In all seriousness though, it's not as though electric automatically equals good. Where does the electricity come from when you plug that sucker in? or if it's embodied in the batteries already, what were the processes used to make and charge those batteries? Are those processes really cleaner than gasoline? Or a step better, are they cleaner than diesel, biodiesel, or fuel cells? I don't know the answers to the last questions necessarily, but I feel like people are jumping on the electric bandwagon without taking a critical look at these things. If it's a plug-in car, and the electricity in your house is coal powered, then for god's sake stick with a gasoline engine! If it's from something better, then there's a more delicate risk/reward analysis to be done, but please remember that we aren't getting electricity out of thin air here people.
$600/mo lease is a little steep, but this is more practical for the citizens of socal - hydrogen has arrived!
'The FCX Clarity has a top speed of 100 miles per hour on a test track, you’ll have no trouble driving at the posted speed limit.'
r - solar power is energy out of thin air! different parts of the country get their electricity generated from various fuel sources, so the midwest, southeast and great plains are the center of coal burning. the north east has more petroleum fired generators, while the pacific northwest & quebec has more hydropower. do some research for you local conditions before condemning all juice flowing from a wall socket as being dirty.
Rationalist, I agree with your post but coal fired power plants may be cleaner than you think, at least in the U.S.
I think the electric argument works when we talk about efficiency. Electric motors are alot more efficient than gas motors. So ultimately, even if you're electricity is coming from a fossil fuel source it will probably use that energy more efficiently than a gas motor would.
As soon as someone hits the trifecta of low (enough) production cost, a price point somewhere between "giving it to you up your ass" and "the price of status", and corporate welfare - I mean invisible subsidies to giant corporations - I mean energizing a free market economy, you folks will get a production scale electric car.
Most likely when one of the big three figures out how to charge you $2000 for a new fuel cell/battery (manufactured by them, obviously) every 2-3 years, we will have an alternative fuel car.
Someone (not me, of course) should compile a timeline showing the auto industry's responses to each of the proposed safety/economy improvements eventually mandated.
Mid-fifties: door latches, seat belts and recessed steering columns -- Sixties: shoulder belts -- Seventies: 5 MPH impact bumpers and door beams; mileage -- Eighties: (?) -- Nineties: air bags
In each case, without exception, Detroit (and, eventually, some Japanese) carmakers cried that these improvements would "add hundreds to the cost of a car and thus imperil the auto industry."
Besides it looking like a bad guess of what future cars will look like in a movie 30 years ago, it looks like it has no safety features.
Cars have to have a common bumper height (why some ride adjusted suspensions don't make it to the US), etc., etc. This surely escapes all safety requirements be essentially being a motorcycle, or, worse, a kit car.
The Tesla is expensive, but it is a true car (and mostly attractive too).
barry- that's why I said that if all your electricity is coming from coal, that's bad, and if it's from something else, then there's a more detailed analysis to be done. I'm not condeming all electricity as bad (though, even hydropower does have drawbacks, and yes, even pollution). But I think a lot of people are jumping on the electrical bandwagon pretty blindly, and thinking that it's already a good thing. I think it has the potential to be a good thing, if we can get our acts together and get electricity from better sources (like solar power, as you mentioned). I'm well aware that the mixture of electrical resources is different for each area, and what I really want is some consideration of what those sources are before we just automatically assume that a plug-in is better. Really, I'm just trying to get a more critical discussion going, rather than the big bandwagon party this seems to be.
r- you made some good points that I missed my first read through your post. so yes, lets get the discussion going. I may be four eyed, but sometimes blind.
Electric vehicles have one mechanical advantage, they are much much simpler- but this simplicity comes with a chemical cost. so is the chemistry of creating electricity, batteries, ultra capicitors, and fuel cells better then internal combustion (no mater what fuel) and the mechanical/manufacturing complexity? time will tell, but in terms of short term local air emissions, there are much, much fewer pm10, pm2.5, NOx, and sulfides created by the generation of electrons at street level. Not that I'm standing down wind from a coal boiler...
as seen of the cityfix there is a huge hidden cost for four wheel transport of about 1.2m deaths per year of pedestrian and two wheel users of roads around the world. m
a car in sheeps clothing or is it a wolf?
I want one- 230mpg, a top speed of 95mph, and a range of 120miles on batteries alone!
more purty pictures at inhabitat
this replaces my lust for a tesla
Nice whip TK. I for the life of me do not understand why electric cars were killed off. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could pick one up for less than 20k and could get more than 100 miles out of it.
Well, after I buy my Triumph...
same reason they dont allow hemp to be grown in the states...
with hemp you can make
clothing
rope
car panels
plastics
food
protein
etc....
it's a capitalist economy in the states..... money money money
if the electric car was actually allowed, then the gas/manufacturing industry would suffer....but then again would it
most of the time a car company will buy off a patent just so it cant be used....i.e. electric car....einsteins atom energy that was used in the atomic bomb/etc....
b
I still lust for a Tesla
This is sweet. It really is like a wingless plane. What's the price ?
its cute but it looks somewhat flimsy... what happens when Vado tries to run you off the road? :P
$26-30k, they are taking $500 refundable deposits now... supposed to be available in one year.
a tricycle shaped as an inverted airfoil - seems like a really unstable vehicle turning at speed with a quartering wind....
Wouldn't an inverted airfoil imply that it's held *down* at speed ? I wonder if they wind-tunnel-tested this baby. It actually looks like there's more of a normal airfoil shape to the "fuselage". . .?
El jeffe, inverted airfoils are what keep F1 cars on the ground at 200 mph.
whoops - you're both correct - my bad. thanks.
but it does look something like a lifting-body aircraft no?
Yeah -- I'd want to see a flatter upper and a bulgier belly, no ? At least it looks slippery. . .
just read the press blurb, consider it bought after i've got my Triumph 675...
Where's it made ?
ha - i've still got my eye on a graphite 675 daytona too...
Did you check out the myspace page ? There's a couple of cool videos. . .
damn, thats the color i want jeffe
the company was started in some guys garage - think it was in cali, maybe san diego way. not many clues on their website so I did some googling yesterday.
Note that you don't get the wind in your hair (or past your helmet, anyway) of a bike; you don't even get to put your elbow out the (sealed) window.
Maybe a pop-up sunroof ?
Apurimac – have you watched "who killed the electric car"?
TK – quite an advantage seeing that the aptera is $72K less than the tesla! Although I still have my heart set on the tesla. Its been on my wish list for quite some time…
Love this comment:
Sep 29 2007 7:24 PM
i'm very interested in the aptera. i'm getting my driver's license in june, and i hope to get the aptera as my first car. . . just some advice, though: the wheels jutting out, which reminds me of a plymouth prowler, is less than amazing...i'd rather have the wheels close in to the car, other than that i love aptera.
Yeah, and I guess frequent roll-overs won't be too annoying. . .
kinda looks like a cartoon sperm on wheels....
here's your answer, Apurimac:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html
my man Ed Schulz was talking about this nonstop about a year ago...i haven't seen it but it's compelling as hell...
I'd like to see it with very close-fitting black cycle fenders and body-color full moons, so the fuselage gets maximum emphasis. . .
2004 ? I thought the movie was more recent than that.
This is actually pretty fun-looking... as in fun-to-drive, cool without not cheesily overly-futuristic... but I wonder, is it actually street-legal?
if it's a carbon composite monocoque i'd buy one in a heartbeat.
Lack of bumpers is surprising (if delightful). Are DOT rules suspended for production under a certain number ?
SDR – that comment "i'm getting my driver's license in june, and i hope to get the aptera as my first car. . . cracks me up.
Yeah. Ah, youth. . .
Note lack of windshield wiper. There needs to be a twenty-first century version of this archaic device.
seriously, I mean I wanna own one of these one day, and i can't be havin a windshield wiper on it:
It would just kill the whole fishbowl cockpit deal.
And thanks for the heads up on the documentary, I've heard of it, I may give it a look.
Yeah -- so what to do about rain on the windshield ? Wax and compressed air ? There must be something. . .
Is that a production Maser ? No way.
Not yet, word round the campfire is look for something similar around 2019.
What, a man can dream can't he?
Oh, yeah ! That's sweet. Unusual to see a show car on a live course ?
The interesting thing is how long it takes to go from student dream to real life; one could have seen very similar renderings and small clay models thirty years ago. Does the industry drag its feet in order to have "something for next year" ?
*bump*
I've decided that I need a new car next fall. the aptera is still haunting my mind - just not sure if I'll be able to swing the $30k price for the plug in hybrid. Oh, I'd have to move to CA to get one...
or maybe just get the fourtwo...
ugh. I wouldn't want to scrape ice off of the windshields of either car posted!
In all seriousness though, it's not as though electric automatically equals good. Where does the electricity come from when you plug that sucker in? or if it's embodied in the batteries already, what were the processes used to make and charge those batteries? Are those processes really cleaner than gasoline? Or a step better, are they cleaner than diesel, biodiesel, or fuel cells? I don't know the answers to the last questions necessarily, but I feel like people are jumping on the electric bandwagon without taking a critical look at these things. If it's a plug-in car, and the electricity in your house is coal powered, then for god's sake stick with a gasoline engine! If it's from something better, then there's a more delicate risk/reward analysis to be done, but please remember that we aren't getting electricity out of thin air here people.
honda fcx clarity
$600/mo lease is a little steep, but this is more practical for the citizens of socal - hydrogen has arrived!
'The FCX Clarity has a top speed of 100 miles per hour on a test track, you’ll have no trouble driving at the posted speed limit.'
r - solar power is energy out of thin air! different parts of the country get their electricity generated from various fuel sources, so the midwest, southeast and great plains are the center of coal burning. the north east has more petroleum fired generators, while the pacific northwest & quebec has more hydropower. do some research for you local conditions before condemning all juice flowing from a wall socket as being dirty.
Rationalist, I agree with your post but coal fired power plants may be cleaner than you think, at least in the U.S.
I think the electric argument works when we talk about efficiency. Electric motors are alot more efficient than gas motors. So ultimately, even if you're electricity is coming from a fossil fuel source it will probably use that energy more efficiently than a gas motor would.
As soon as someone hits the trifecta of low (enough) production cost, a price point somewhere between "giving it to you up your ass" and "the price of status", and corporate welfare - I mean invisible subsidies to giant corporations - I mean energizing a free market economy, you folks will get a production scale electric car.
Most likely when one of the big three figures out how to charge you $2000 for a new fuel cell/battery (manufactured by them, obviously) every 2-3 years, we will have an alternative fuel car.
Someone (not me, of course) should compile a timeline showing the auto industry's responses to each of the proposed safety/economy improvements eventually mandated.
Mid-fifties: door latches, seat belts and recessed steering columns -- Sixties: shoulder belts -- Seventies: 5 MPH impact bumpers and door beams; mileage -- Eighties: (?) -- Nineties: air bags
In each case, without exception, Detroit (and, eventually, some Japanese) carmakers cried that these improvements would "add hundreds to the cost of a car and thus imperil the auto industry."
Besides it looking like a bad guess of what future cars will look like in a movie 30 years ago, it looks like it has no safety features.
Cars have to have a common bumper height (why some ride adjusted suspensions don't make it to the US), etc., etc. This surely escapes all safety requirements be essentially being a motorcycle, or, worse, a kit car.
The Tesla is expensive, but it is a true car (and mostly attractive too).
barry- that's why I said that if all your electricity is coming from coal, that's bad, and if it's from something else, then there's a more detailed analysis to be done. I'm not condeming all electricity as bad (though, even hydropower does have drawbacks, and yes, even pollution). But I think a lot of people are jumping on the electrical bandwagon pretty blindly, and thinking that it's already a good thing. I think it has the potential to be a good thing, if we can get our acts together and get electricity from better sources (like solar power, as you mentioned). I'm well aware that the mixture of electrical resources is different for each area, and what I really want is some consideration of what those sources are before we just automatically assume that a plug-in is better. Really, I'm just trying to get a more critical discussion going, rather than the big bandwagon party this seems to be.
r- you made some good points that I missed my first read through your post. so yes, lets get the discussion going. I may be four eyed, but sometimes blind.
Electric vehicles have one mechanical advantage, they are much much simpler- but this simplicity comes with a chemical cost. so is the chemistry of creating electricity, batteries, ultra capicitors, and fuel cells better then internal combustion (no mater what fuel) and the mechanical/manufacturing complexity? time will tell, but in terms of short term local air emissions, there are much, much fewer pm10, pm2.5, NOx, and sulfides created by the generation of electrons at street level. Not that I'm standing down wind from a coal boiler...
as seen of the cityfix there is a huge hidden cost for four wheel transport of about 1.2m deaths per year of pedestrian and two wheel users of roads around the world. m
SUSAN CARPENTER takes a ride in the prototype electric aptera- woohoo!
more photos of freaky trikes and there is a video clip too...
Could this be the styling prototype for the Aptera ?
http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/friskyfamily3.html
spotted on worldchanging
Ah -- well, product placement, even without identification of any sort, is still publicity, I suppose ?
A gullwing-height sill -- with no gullwing ? The worst of both worlds ?
I'm honestly glad to see the spirit of Bucky Fuller alive and well.
That said,:
I think I'd have to get tiny elves with tiny rags to polish the underside every day.
What would happen if on a steep hill, the middle wheel didn't get enough traction on a greasy spot and slid back.
But I still want one.
Is that video of an early night-time around-the-block spin still up ? What a hoot !
has anyone seen this?
i kind of like it.
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