A couple of Aptera changes in the last year that didn't get mentioned: 1 - The front wheel pants now lock/unlock and pivot open to provide full access to the front tires without tools. And 2 - Aptera has been working with a 'gorilla glass' manufacturer (in Hungry, I believe) to provide the exterior-most layer of the solar panels. This is a huge improvement over the plastic material that was being used.... it's much stronger, much more scratch resistant, it's much lighter weight, and I believe it's optically clearer also. Great to see you back Kaz!
It's great to see you back Kaz with us in the Aptera community. Thanks for the fun interview getting a year's update from the awesome, positively charged DTL Duo!!!
@@EVswithKaz Gamma originally had non-glass topped solar panels on the hood and roof but both appeared to have failed. Gamma now has a glass topped solar panel on the hood.
welcome back Kaz, hopefully your time away wasn't too hard, if at some point you care to share what (not behind bars) was like, then perhaps we shall find out at some point. i look forward to the incoming aptera content after you get one, guess we shall find out if the model 3 goes away when you pick up the aptera.
We’ve seen big changes to the user interface. Software is going to be a huge challenge and is rarely discussed. It looks good from what I’ve seen, but photoshop renders are a far cry from integrated software. They seem confident in over-the-air updates, but like most cars they will be limited to certain functionality. If these things worry you, I suggest waiting for reviews and maybe a year or two. I’ll be on the bleeding edge. I can’t wait!
Oh cool, looking forward to checking out the UI changes! Software is so important and very few companies get it right. I'm guessing that if they do start delivering some cars in 2025, I probably won't see mine till at least 2026. I'm sure they'll be a ton of reviews out before I get mine.
In terms of Aptera user interface, I’ve been very encouraged by a video by Drew at Tailosive - he’s a very big tech/software guy, and when he went to Aptera and they showed him some of what they have so far on the software side, he said he was super impressed.
Chad, you did a great job. You know your stuff. And don't bulls*it. I'm an Accelerator at the number at 149 would be happy to let you film my fat butt driving away from Carlsbad. Or maybe I can swing by Grand Rapids.
Great interview. It's good to see you back. I thought I might go over a couple of details that the interview might not have covered. You can probably find all this on your own, but this is what I thought were the most important points. 1) Aptera announced back in November of last year that they had sufficient funding to build the 16 PI models and complete validation and crash testing. So US Capital Global is only needed to provide the funding to begin full scale production. It should be noted that US Capital provides loans as well as investment funding. So they might be able to provide Aptera with a loan if investors are not forthcoming. 2) The chassis has a few minor changes to it that are obvious visually, although it's obviously the same design. My understanding is that the rear suspension arm has been improved so that it no longer swings in an arc, but moves up and down. So that is an improvement. As others in these comments have said, the solar panels are backed with glass now, although I wasn't sure if this change was older than a year, so you make have already known about it. The solar panels have been demoed and tested now, which is new. The belly pan cooling system is not going to be ready for release, and will be replaced by a standard EV cooling system with a radiator. I'm expecting that they're going to have to develop quite a few prototypes, maybe the later PI builds, before they can make it work consistently. So they're not delaying the Launch Edition while they work it out. 3) There has been no statement about the price, although it was always assumed to be an estimate. I personally don't feel it will change by more than a few thousand dollars. Steve Fambro did talk about putting out a below-250 mile range option in order to lower the cost even further for those that want the cheapest possible option. That could be interpreted as he expects the base price to go up somewhat, but again I don't expect it to be that much. Maybe $2000 or $3000, $5000 at the most. 4) The biggest partnerships in the past year have been CPC Group and CTNS. CTNS is producing the robotics to assemble the batteries, they are not making the battery packs themselves. We don't know if their battery supplier is still Eve Energy or they've gone with someone else. 5) I feel the biggest challenge at this point is getting the PI builds completed and starting crash testing. The changes to the chassis did seem to delay things a bit, and as Chad said, the schedule seems to be for things to start around September. Maybe a little earlier, I think we still will see a lot of milestones as PI1 and PI2 are completed and are demoed for the first time, and maybe PI3 as well. 6) Production should start in 2025 and once it does they should be producing around 7000 vehicles a year, so they should be able to put a dent in the preorders, especially if they go to two shifts. The estimate that has been given is that it will take nine months to gear up for production, and if we assume that Aptera has already started, then the earliest production could begin is March of 2025. If it will take a year, however, and we can probably assume it will, then it won't be until June of 2025. And if they can't begin tooling for production until the chassis and interior are finalized then it could be September or October of 2025. Of course some things will take longer to gear up for production than others. The software they can be working on right up until release. I'll cut it short there. I do think it's neat that so many of Aptera's employees have been able to move on to either other similar businesses, or have started their own business, putting their experience at Aptera to working helping other startups. But I really have nothing to add about that. I'm sure after all this verbosity, you can appreciate that. 😂 Now that you're back, I look forward to your next video.
The price of the Aptera is a pre covid, pre inflation estimate. From the time they still planned to build a cheap version of the body out of vacuum formed plastic panels. And there are still no crashtests. They even had to use the old beta chassis for testing, as they dont even have a running Pi chassis. CTNS builds battery packs out of used second hand batteries. Production should start every year since 2019. Just empty promises. Aptera still does not have the 300 Mill $ necesssary to start production.
@@vic321344 Yes, it was a cheap, vacuum formed body made out of fiberglass (not plastic) panels MADE BY HAND. The newer carbon fiber panels will be cheaper to produce and can be turned out in higher numbers. And the economy has recovered from Covid and Inflation is dropping. Chris has said that the issue is that the supply chains are still recovering, not that there is a lack of funding. And that they can deal with that by shipping by air, despite the higher cost. The testing on Beta wasn't for the design of the chassis, as we assumed, it was completing the tests that had already been done on Beta. It doesn't seem as of the chassis needs to be tested before the design is finalized. And CTNS isn't making battery packs for Aptera, they are making the robots to make the battery packs. And you still have yet to provide any official source for that $300 million claim. The stated number is only $60 million.
You likely mean MAXEON and, no, the newer Maxeon CELLS will likely not be used on Aptera as Aptera has said they need Maxeon copper backed cells. Regarding the "lasting 40 year" thing, Maxeon offers a 40 year power warranty on some panels MAXEON makes and not panels that Aptera makes with Maxeon CELLS. Interestingly, one condition Maxeon has in their 40 year warranty is that they can't be used on moving vehicles!!
There is no funding.... USA Capital Global is going to TRY to find investors who MIGHT be interested in investing in Aptera 🤔 Drive the lighting should understand this, it's like basics
US Capital Global (not USA) provides loans as well as investors. We simply do not know how much funding has been provided and how much will be provided over the next year.
I hope you have the ethics not to block people? Chad has not given all of the technical changes that are well known to the public. He missed out on the fact that the belly pan skin cooling has been abandoned, which is a monumental change on the PI's and the LE's. He missed saying there's a cheap (still not using heat pumps) cooler to replace it that is placed near the battery where it can't get access to cool air other than past the wipers, which on the wind tunnel test showed no air flowing through. Since Gamma was supposed to be fixed (if it wasn't staged) with its skin cooling, they need to build this new system and prove the cooler doesn't stew in its own mostly enclosed surroundings. These omissions are too great to overlook. You need to ask more savvy people than DTL who are good a window washing.
You would be worried about being blocked. Aussieman has an anti-Aptera channel. The belly-cooling is a great concept but it hardly defines the success of the vehicle. It won’t have a heat-pump either, sadly. The wind-tunnel testing was hardly comprehensive. It was put together for a photo-op. Being half the weight of other EVs, and less than half the rolling resistance, it will need far less cooling. It’ll be fine.
@@TheScottShepard "The belly-cooling is a great concept" It is a silly concept. Happy to trade great aspects with idiotic realities with you. "but it hardly defines the success of the vehicle." Sales define the success - how many? Preorders for seeing fake prototypes are not sales. "It won’t have a heat-pump either, sadly." It won't be an EV at this stage. "The wind-tunnel testing was hardly comprehensive." It was way below that, but the smoke going over it was enough to see that none went down the wiper opening. It would have to do about a 120 degree U-turn against the flow, which in reality it is just still air. "It was put together for a photo-op." It was speculated by some that the wiper opening was taped up and other stunts done to make it look better that what a real Aptera would look. "Being half the weight of other EVs, and less than half the rolling resistance, it will need far less cooling." That is wishful thinking, because neither the weight nor the RR is known. And there is flawed logic in it; an EV weighing twice that of another doesn't need twice the cooling. Nor does an EV with twice the RR of another need twice. These issues are not linear, so you can not say "far less" is the expected result. But we do know it has far less cooling. Way less access to cooling air. "It’ll be fine." An intelligent person would wait until that was established beyond doubt.
@@aussieideasman8498 Anyone who could do the math and had access to the data knows that Aptera works. Aussie doesn't believe in math, as he has admitted in the past. That is why he has wasted his time on trying to create a perpetual motion machine.
On new partnerships Chad botched it badly and you should just be watching the videos over the last year. CTNS had two names, neither of which were CTNS and there was no mention of the confusion surrounding Flux Power's and an unnamed local supplier's new involvement. Nor mention of Danisi, or that unnamed Spanish window supplier and lots more. Stick to the videos for completeness.
Chad made it sound like very few left. Aptera went down to 31 people from about mid 80's in that year, and almost all were sacked. If you read comments from my videos you will find people who say many are venting anger on the Glassdoor site, so check that out. Few leaving and all amicably is misleading, and these window cleaners know it. They have skin in the game and you should be alert to being duped by such people.
A couple of Aptera changes in the last year that didn't get mentioned: 1 - The front wheel pants now lock/unlock and pivot open to provide full access to the front tires without tools. And 2 - Aptera has been working with a 'gorilla glass' manufacturer (in Hungry, I believe) to provide the exterior-most layer of the solar panels. This is a huge improvement over the plastic material that was being used.... it's much stronger, much more scratch resistant, it's much lighter weight, and I believe it's optically clearer also. Great to see you back Kaz!
Thank you! Great to be back. Thanks for the additional updates.
@@EVswithKaz You're welcome. These are exciting Aptera times!
It's great to see you back Kaz with us in the Aptera community. Thanks for the fun interview getting a year's update from the awesome, positively charged DTL Duo!!!
Thank you! It's nice to be back :)
Always fun to visit the Kaz show!
Thanks you two! Always great to have you on.
The solar panel changed to have glass for the outer skin. Looks awesome.
I think I recall Gamma having glass over the panels. Is that what you mean or is it something different?
Aptera goes from cheap to expensive.
@@EVswithKaz Gamma originally had non-glass topped solar panels on the hood and roof but both appeared to have failed. Gamma now has a glass topped solar panel on the hood.
welcome back Kaz, hopefully your time away wasn't too hard, if at some point you care to share what (not behind bars) was like, then perhaps we shall find out at some point.
i look forward to the incoming aptera content after you get one, guess we shall find out if the model 3 goes away when you pick up the aptera.
I do plan on making a video about it, so hopefully I can get that out soon-ish!
Thanks Kaz, missed you. Did your kittie travel with you?
Thanks, Carole! She mostly stays home. Sometime she comes with me to my dad's, but he's only 30 miles away.
Welcome back Kaz.
Looking forward to be see more of your videos.
Thank you! More to come
Posted to Reddit at r/ApteraMotors - Thanks for the wonderful community that is forming!
Thank you, Bruce!
We’ve seen big changes to the user interface. Software is going to be a huge challenge and is rarely discussed. It looks good from what I’ve seen, but photoshop renders are a far cry from integrated software. They seem confident in over-the-air updates, but like most cars they will be limited to certain functionality. If these things worry you, I suggest waiting for reviews and maybe a year or two. I’ll be on the bleeding edge. I can’t wait!
Oh cool, looking forward to checking out the UI changes! Software is so important and very few companies get it right. I'm guessing that if they do start delivering some cars in 2025, I probably won't see mine till at least 2026. I'm sure they'll be a ton of reviews out before I get mine.
In terms of Aptera user interface, I’ve been very encouraged by a video by Drew at Tailosive - he’s a very big tech/software guy, and when he went to Aptera and they showed him some of what they have so far on the software side, he said he was super impressed.
Chad, you did a great job. You know your stuff. And don't bulls*it. I'm an Accelerator at the number at 149 would be happy to let you film my fat butt driving away from Carlsbad. Or maybe I can swing by Grand Rapids.
That would be awesome!!!
Great interview. It's good to see you back. I thought I might go over a couple of details that the interview might not have covered. You can probably find all this on your own, but this is what I thought were the most important points.
1) Aptera announced back in November of last year that they had sufficient funding to build the 16 PI models and complete validation and crash testing. So US Capital Global is only needed to provide the funding to begin full scale production. It should be noted that US Capital provides loans as well as investment funding. So they might be able to provide Aptera with a loan if investors are not forthcoming.
2) The chassis has a few minor changes to it that are obvious visually, although it's obviously the same design. My understanding is that the rear suspension arm has been improved so that it no longer swings in an arc, but moves up and down. So that is an improvement. As others in these comments have said, the solar panels are backed with glass now, although I wasn't sure if this change was older than a year, so you make have already known about it. The solar panels have been demoed and tested now, which is new.
The belly pan cooling system is not going to be ready for release, and will be replaced by a standard EV cooling system with a radiator. I'm expecting that they're going to have to develop quite a few prototypes, maybe the later PI builds, before they can make it work consistently. So they're not delaying the Launch Edition while they work it out.
3) There has been no statement about the price, although it was always assumed to be an estimate. I personally don't feel it will change by more than a few thousand dollars. Steve Fambro did talk about putting out a below-250 mile range option in order to lower the cost even further for those that want the cheapest possible option. That could be interpreted as he expects the base price to go up somewhat, but again I don't expect it to be that much. Maybe $2000 or $3000, $5000 at the most.
4) The biggest partnerships in the past year have been CPC Group and CTNS. CTNS is producing the robotics to assemble the batteries, they are not making the battery packs themselves. We don't know if their battery supplier is still Eve Energy or they've gone with someone else.
5) I feel the biggest challenge at this point is getting the PI builds completed and starting crash testing. The changes to the chassis did seem to delay things a bit, and as Chad said, the schedule seems to be for things to start around September. Maybe a little earlier, I think we still will see a lot of milestones as PI1 and PI2 are completed and are demoed for the first time, and maybe PI3 as well.
6) Production should start in 2025 and once it does they should be producing around 7000 vehicles a year, so they should be able to put a dent in the preorders, especially if they go to two shifts. The estimate that has been given is that it will take nine months to gear up for production, and if we assume that Aptera has already started, then the earliest production could begin is March of 2025. If it will take a year, however, and we can probably assume it will, then it won't be until June of 2025. And if they can't begin tooling for production until the chassis and interior are finalized then it could be September or October of 2025. Of course some things will take longer to gear up for production than others. The software they can be working on right up until release.
I'll cut it short there. I do think it's neat that so many of Aptera's employees have been able to move on to either other similar businesses, or have started their own business, putting their experience at Aptera to working helping other startups. But I really have nothing to add about that. I'm sure after all this verbosity, you can appreciate that. 😂 Now that you're back, I look forward to your next video.
The price of the Aptera is a pre covid, pre inflation estimate. From the time they still planned to build a cheap version of the body out of vacuum formed plastic panels.
And there are still no crashtests. They even had to use the old beta chassis for testing, as they dont even have a running Pi chassis. CTNS builds battery packs out of used second hand batteries. Production should start every year since 2019. Just empty promises. Aptera still does not have the 300 Mill $ necesssary to start production.
@@vic321344 Yes, it was a cheap, vacuum formed body made out of fiberglass (not plastic) panels MADE BY HAND. The newer carbon fiber panels will be cheaper to produce and can be turned out in higher numbers. And the economy has recovered from Covid and Inflation is dropping. Chris has said that the issue is that the supply chains are still recovering, not that there is a lack of funding. And that they can deal with that by shipping by air, despite the higher cost.
The testing on Beta wasn't for the design of the chassis, as we assumed, it was completing the tests that had already been done on Beta. It doesn't seem as of the chassis needs to be tested before the design is finalized. And CTNS isn't making battery packs for Aptera, they are making the robots to make the battery packs.
And you still have yet to provide any official source for that $300 million claim. The stated number is only $60 million.
@richardryley3660 Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a detailed comment! I really appreciate your insights!
Welcome back Kaz!
Thank you!
Wonder if they will use Maxim new solar panels which I’d suppose to last 40 years and more flexible
Aptera has no problem to make their motorcycle more expensive. They dont even have a production ready prototype, so no need to sell anything.
You likely mean MAXEON and, no, the newer Maxeon CELLS will likely not be used on Aptera as Aptera has said they need Maxeon copper backed cells. Regarding the "lasting 40 year" thing, Maxeon offers a 40 year power warranty on some panels MAXEON makes and not panels that Aptera makes with Maxeon CELLS. Interestingly, one condition Maxeon has in their 40 year warranty is that they can't be used on moving vehicles!!
What about the Middle East visit and partnership for the gold Apteras?
I saw a little something about the Middle East visit, but gold Aptera? 🤣
Progress is the only thing we get from Aptera. Year after year. But no production prototype. Since 2009.
There is no funding.... USA Capital Global is going to TRY to find investors who MIGHT be interested in investing in Aptera 🤔
Drive the lighting should understand this, it's like basics
Exactly!
US Capital Global (not USA) provides loans as well as investors. We simply do not know how much funding has been provided and how much will be provided over the next year.
I hope you have the ethics not to block people? Chad has not given all of the technical changes that are well known to the public. He missed out on the fact that the belly pan skin cooling has been abandoned, which is a monumental change on the PI's and the LE's. He missed saying there's a cheap (still not using heat pumps) cooler to replace it that is placed near the battery where it can't get access to cool air other than past the wipers, which on the wind tunnel test showed no air flowing through. Since Gamma was supposed to be fixed (if it wasn't staged) with its skin cooling, they need to build this new system and prove the cooler doesn't stew in its own mostly enclosed surroundings. These omissions are too great to overlook. You need to ask more savvy people than DTL who are good a window washing.
These are great points! Thank you for the clarification.
You would be worried about being blocked. Aussieman has an anti-Aptera channel.
The belly-cooling is a great concept but it hardly defines the success of the vehicle. It won’t have a heat-pump either, sadly. The wind-tunnel testing was hardly comprehensive. It was put together for a photo-op. Being half the weight of other EVs, and less than half the rolling resistance, it will need far less cooling. It’ll be fine.
@@dtl My videos are all about clarification.
@@TheScottShepard "The belly-cooling is a great concept" It is a silly concept. Happy to trade great aspects with idiotic realities with you.
"but it hardly defines the success of the vehicle." Sales define the success - how many? Preorders for seeing fake prototypes are not sales.
"It won’t have a heat-pump either, sadly." It won't be an EV at this stage.
"The wind-tunnel testing was hardly comprehensive." It was way below that, but the smoke going over it was enough to see that none went down the wiper opening. It would have to do about a 120 degree U-turn against the flow, which in reality it is just still air.
"It was put together for a photo-op." It was speculated by some that the wiper opening was taped up and other stunts done to make it look better that what a real Aptera would look.
"Being half the weight of other EVs, and less than half the rolling resistance, it will need far less cooling." That is wishful thinking, because neither the weight nor the RR is known. And there is flawed logic in it; an EV weighing twice that of another doesn't need twice the cooling. Nor does an EV with twice the RR of another need twice. These issues are not linear, so you can not say "far less" is the expected result. But we do know it has far less cooling. Way less access to cooling air.
"It’ll be fine." An intelligent person would wait until that was established beyond doubt.
@@aussieideasman8498 Anyone who could do the math and had access to the data knows that Aptera works. Aussie doesn't believe in math, as he has admitted in the past. That is why he has wasted his time on trying to create a perpetual motion machine.
The price will go up 10k or more for sure, they made up these prices in 2019 anf they were unrealistic then
On new partnerships Chad botched it badly and you should just be watching the videos over the last year. CTNS had two names, neither of which were CTNS and there was no mention of the confusion surrounding Flux Power's and an unnamed local supplier's new involvement. Nor mention of Danisi, or that unnamed Spanish window supplier and lots more. Stick to the videos for completeness.
Wow, I think I’m glad I have no idea what you’re talking about!
Chad made it sound like very few left. Aptera went down to 31 people from about mid 80's in that year, and almost all were sacked. If you read comments from my videos you will find people who say many are venting anger on the Glassdoor site, so check that out. Few leaving and all amicably is misleading, and these window cleaners know it. They have skin in the game and you should be alert to being duped by such people.