Feb 10 2009

Aptera's Hypercar

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

In the early 1990s, Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute created the concept of Hypercar, "designed to capture the synergies of ultralight construction; low-drag design; hybrid-electric drive; and, efficient accessories to achieve 3- to 5-fold improvement in fuel economy, equal or better performance, safety, amenity and affordability, compared to today's vehicles."  

Today, at long last, innovative car makers are beginning to realize that ambitious vision, just in time to address the twin specters of peak oil and global warming.

  No vehicle startup better exemplifies the Hypercar vision than Aptera, based in San Diego County. Its radical 2e model, featured on Star Trek, is a three-wheeler that weighs only 1,700 pounds, yet has a wheel-base almost as wide as a Hummer and a highly crash-resistant body made from advanced composite materials.

With so little weight to push around, the all-electric two-seater will achieve the equivalent of more than 200 mpg and have a range of more than 100 miles per charge, the company claims.

Aptera says the commuter vehicle will go into full production this fall, for sale in California at a price somewhere between $25,000 and $45,000. Full U.S. sales will follow in 2010.

There's a reason the Aptera looks like a small airplane without the wings. With its teardrop shape, Aptera's 2e has an aerodynamic drag coefficient of only 0.15, less than half of typical vehicles on the road today and, according to the company, even  "less drag than Lance Armstrong on a 10-speed." That means it slips through the air rather than using brute force to push air aside at highway speeds.

The blogosphere is full of chatter about the eye-catching design and specs of the 2e. For every critic who complains the design "struck me as a movie set prop and not a real vehicle," others call it an "aesthetically revolutionary body" that represents "the pinnacle of function over form."

To learn more about the concepts behind Aptera's design, we talked with Aptera's chief marketing officer, auto industry veteran Marques McCammon. Here are his comments, edited for space:

How important were the lessons of Hypercar to Aptera's design?

They were critical. Let's start with aerodynamics and drag. The average vehicle uses half of its energy moving wind out of its way at high speeds. Most vehicles have a profile more akin to a brick than an airfoil. A fundamental thesis behind Aptera's design was that if we could find the perfect body form that would slice through instead of pushing wind, we could use that much less energy to travel the same distance.

  Weight is also one of the critical enemies of vehicle performance and fuel efficiency. It goes back to basic physics. The greater the mass, the more effort or energy need to move it from point A to point B. The unfortunate truth is, for many good reasons, the mass of vehicles has continued to increase. There is higher demand on power trains and engines to move that mass the same distance. Our weight is about half that of most vehicles in this space.

So those are two of the most critical issues in getting fuel efficiency. More important than type of engine, they govern the sizing of the engine. The heavier you are and the more drag you have, the bigger the engine you need. That's the reason the engine under a Hummer is as big as it is.

What was the genesis of the car?

It started with [co-founder and Chief Technical Officer] Steve [Fambro] being stuck in a traffic jam, wishing he could be over in the diamond lane, and trying to figure out how to create a vehicle efficient enough to allow him to take advantage of the commuter lane. He bought a Honda Insight and started thinking, "if I could make a perfectly efficient vehicle, how much energy could I save?"

When the idea first struck him, he was working in the biotech industry, designing systems to get the highest level of production efficiency. They were so successful that they gained market leadership and lower cost than anyone else. He's an electrical engineer by training and has been an auto enthusiast for many years.

Steve is a consummate student, so he pulled textbooks and whitepapers from anyone he could find, pertaining to autos, aircraft, and boats. He did lots of research into composites. The work of the Rocky Mountain Institute absolutely factored into his thinking.

What about safety?

Most people assume lighter vehicles are less safe. Under conventional design theory, mass is never a bad thing from a safety standpoint. But the design of Aptera takes more from the aircraft and indy car industries, where people have to make vehicles that are very light and very safe, that can endure impacts at very high speeds or very high altitudes and protect the occupants. A Formula One vehicle is as light as ours and allows occupants to survive at speeds in excess of 200 mph.

We know safety is first and foremost in everyone's mind. Ours vehicles have front and rear impact zones, driver and passenger air bags, three-point seat belts, and proprietary safety technology. On top, we have unique composite body structure that is three to four times as strong as steel for same weight. We give people a sledge hammer and offer them $10 if they can make a dent. We've had weight lifters slamming on it and they barely scuffed it.

Our vehicle has a very low center of gravity and a very wide stance. Our track width is more comparable to a high performance sports car, like a Viper or Corvette, than a Honda Civic. We are capable of lateral acceleration approaching that of a Mustang. I've been in many a high performance vehicle, and our vehicle at high rates of speed is just as stable as some of best sports cars in the world.

What is market for such a radical-looking vehicle?

The two-seat market is definitely smaller than four in the United States, but they can realize sales volumes in the 10,000-30,000 range. That's what we are expecting out of this vehicle. We've hired research teams to test our market assumptions, and we can absolutely sell it in Kansas. We will have three waves of buyers. The first are early adopters: they see it, understand it, and are not afraid to move into new things. Then come fast followers; they want to see it on the road, and get some validation from a friend. The last is the core market; they tend to move a bit later, and wait to see that the technology is established. That's much the way the Prius was introduced into the market. Our vehicle is polarizing at first, but many people are absolutely enthralled with it.

Next: How the steel industry stays in the game.

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