APTERA’S DESIGN-INTENT VEHICLE REVEALED
AT APRIL 14 PRESS CONFERENCE
“Aptera has navigated some financial challenges during the past year, but we’ve recently turned a very important corner and we’re on the road to financial stability,” said President and CEO Paul Wilbur during an April 14 press conference. “We are behind our projected launch timing for the 2e – and the ultimate responsibility is mine. But our team is deeply committed to putting the world’s most efficient vehicle on the road, and despite the tough economy, we’ve recently secured new private funding from a combination of new and existing investors.”
“We’re also waiting for news related to our Department of Energy application for a five-year, $184 million loan through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. And we completed the first close of our recent round of funding in March, so only one more financing hurdle remains. When it’s complete, it will take about 11 months to start our full-volume launch of the 2e next year.” (The 2h will follow closely behind.)
Aptera’s design-intent 2e model, which was shown to the public for the first time, is, according to Aptera Chief Engineer Tom Reichenbach, “what consumers can expect as the design-intent vehicle. (http://www.flickr.com/people/aptera for photos.) Additionally, nearly 90 percent of the material cost of the 2e will be sourced from American-based suppliers and the vehicle will be assembled by Aptera in the USA.”
Overall, 23 strategic suppliers (and Aptera Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE team sponsors) were announced for the 2e, including GE; Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Systems, which supplies the vehicle’s phosphate-based lithium ion batteries and management systems; electric motor provider Remy International from Anderson, Ind.; and transmission systems from BorgWarner in Dearborn, Mich. (http://xprize.aptera.com for a full list of the announced partners.)
Wilbur stated Aptera will ultimately employ 2,500 people between its north San Diego County headquarters and other company facilities around the country. Another 10,000 indirect jobs are expected to emerge at component suppliers, vehicle retailers, transportation and other third-party service providers.
“The Aptera was developed completely from a clean slate. It’s the ultimate start-up,” said Wilbur. “Lots of engineering and dedicated people have created this beautiful vehicle. The objective is to assure that the safety, quality and overall efficiency of our first production vehicle are correct. No compromises. We have to get this right the first time, and we’ve contracted with the best and brightest in the industry.”
When the press conference concluded, the design-intent 2e was rolled onto a transport vehicle and shipped to Michigan where it will compete in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. For the next several months, the 2e will share the field with other innovative vehicles from around the world.
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Tech talk: What Does Design-Intent Mean?
Tom Reichenbach, chief engineer at Aptera, took a few minutes to chat about the design-intent Aptera 2e that debuted in mid-April and is now in Michigan competing at the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. Here’s a snippet of the conversation, and we’ve posted the complete Q&A on our blog which is available here: http://www.aptera.com/plugin.php
What does design-intent mean and how is it different from a “production intent” vehicle?
Tom:
“Design-intent means the parts are to print and they’re made of the correct material –
by any means, by any process. They can be hand fabricated, soft-tooled or hard-tooled.
“A design-intent vehicle is developed to the CAD (computer-aided design) that you have. The functional objectives drive the design and focus us on what we need to design. Then once we produce the car, we measure it against the functional objectives. The next step is to start adjusting the part or the parameters of the problem, and when we’re done meeting the functional objectives, that vehicle will be the vehicle we hard-tool (for production).
“The difference with a design-intent vehicle is you haven’t gone through the development process yet. And the production parts on the production-intent vehicle will all be hard-tooled.
“A production-intent vehicle, as soon as it’s built, will meet the functional objectives, and all the testing you do then is verification testing to validate that something didn’t go awry in the process. Verifying the production-intent vehicle shows that the design is complete and all the development is complete.”
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X PRIZE Update: Aptera Successfully Passes the Shakedown Phase
After six consecutive days of inspection, testing and evaluation, the Aptera 2e passed the Shakedown phase of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.
Twenty-eight teams representing 36 super fuel-efficient vehicles from across the globe started on-track performance testing at Michigan International Speedway last week, marking the beginning of Shakedown — the first of three testing stages for the X PRIZE. Each of these stages evaluates the efficiency, safety and performance of the vehicles under real-world conditions, with a goal of exceeding 100 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent.)
Shakedown is a round of safety checks and inspections, followed by a round of on-track challenges to give the teams a chance to test their vehicles and get ready for the Knockout Qualifying stage that follows. Each evaluation was an attempt to give the teams a sense of how they would be measured in the subsequent rounds.
During the inspection, each team underwent a four-hour (minimum) evaluation by a team of experienced automotive experts, who evaluated the build of the competition vehicles against a number of safety parameters, including, but not limited to, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). After the initial inspection, each team was given the opportunity to make adjustments to their vehicle and reconvene with the judges for further evaluation. For Aptera, the inspection process totaled nearly 6.5 hours, and in the end, the 2e was the first vehicle to pass tech inspection.
All of the teams that passed the scrutiny of the judges were called to the track to engage in dynamic evaluations. Each team was required to pass four events before receiving approval to move to the next phase of the competition. Since the event was a “shakedown” (not a scored part of the competition), teams unable to meet the dynamic requirements were granted the right to appeal a failure, provided that, with reasonable tuning, the vehicle would have the potential to pass the test by Knockouts in June. This provision was provided to the teams to offset the fact that most, if not all, vehicles were in early stages of their development. For Aptera, the Shakedown was the first time the design-intent vehicle performed any dynamic testing beyond basic mileage accumulation and break-in.
The first dynamic event was the 0 – 60 mph acceleration, followed closely by the 60 – 0 mph deceleration event, which provided little challenge for the 2e. After a few short passes, the team was off to the next event: the double-lane-change maneuver, which was not as much of a cakewalk. Without the benefit of prior ride development, the 2e repeatedly passed through the course, but 1 – 1.5 mph below the required speed. The challenge was particularly frustrating because the double-lane-change is a standard part of Aptera’s development plan, but the team simply hadn’t had the opportunity to tune the vehicle yet.
Passing the gate was the only option, so the Aptera team loaded up on caffeine and worked into the night to adjust the suspension for better handling through the course. Then, when the call came for Aptera to retake the test, the team showed up at the track with tuning gear in hand and iterated the vehicle set-up right there on the track until it floated through the trap at the mandated speed.
Later that same day, the team lined up with one of our competitors for the durability event, where each vehicle was required to complete 20 laps of an intricate road course at an average of about three minutes per lap. With our Chief Engineer Tom Reichenbach, behind the wheel, the 2e glided through the event on the first attempt without issue…and well below the required time.
When the Aptera team pulled out of the gates of Michigan International Speedway on Friday, we were one of only six teams reported to have completed all of the required events and the inspection. The team’s hard work and tenacity had paid off.
Aptera left the Shakedown with a complete score card and no need to exercise an appeal. There is still a great deal of work to be done to get the vehicle ready for the Knockout phase, and even more before we can say we are ready for production. For now, however, the team can enjoy a job well done.
Read more at
Source: aptera.com
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