Every new car company (and boy, there seems to be a lot of them these days) inevitably seems to hit some sort of Preston Tucker moment. No, I’m not saying a bunch of feds in the pockets of Detroit are about to come swooping down on the builders of the futuristic three wheelers in an act of vengeance for their cars being too good. But when the headline reads, ” Aptera refunding all deposits for its ultra efficient three-wheeler”, it has to give one pause.

Funny thing is, I have some experience with the Aptera three-wheeler, even if it is only peripheral. When I was living and working in San Francisco, a boss of mine gave me a call to come down and help him drive one of the things (I was working for a tech magazine at the time). Sadly, I missed the call, but Mr. Bossman was suitably impressed by the Aptera.

And no, in case you’re trying to dismiss this as being full on geek love, this guy was a dyed in the wool gearhead of the first order. Total more than one Ducati, still kicks himself over letting that Plymouth Superbird go, so when he said, “You should have driven the thing man, it was quicker than you’d expect, and the handling was really impressive,” I took him at his word.

And ever since, I have been paying attention to Aptera, waiting for them to finally roll out their three-wheeler. But, as the delays mounted, and the debut dates got slipped and slipped and slipped some more, I began to give up hope.

And now come the news that the company is not only refusing to take deposits, but is also taking the proactive step of returning the deposits they already have.

In an e-mail to their followers, Aptera said that it is returning every deposit made for the ultra-aerodynamic, three-wheeled electric vehicle (or planned hybrid version, that’s still kind of iffy) thus far. The e-mail reads, in part:

“Our path to production has been longer than anticipated, which has complicated our reservation administration to the point that we have decided to return your deposit. … [Our credit-card processing system] is designed for transactions to be completed in a six-month window. Since most of Aptera’s deposits have been in reserve for more than six months, maintenance of the account has become problematic for our credit card processor and administratively cumbersome for Aptera.”

Uh, huh. So, by saying, ” … maintenance of the account has become problematic for our credit card processor and administratively cumbersome for Aptera,” you mean that it’s an IT/Admin problem that you just don’t want to deal with cause of the hassle? Really? Boy, I’ve heard some whopper sized excuses from IT guys before (and I’m sure main Gearhead Chris will back me up on that), but this is a new one.

Curiously, this comes just after Aptera announced that they got another round of funding, $2.25 million to be exact, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

So honestly, I’m not sure what to make of this. I just hope they get things turned around and they get the thing rolling out of the factory and on the road. It’s interesting, distinctive looking and, honestly, you have to say we need more transportation options than we currently have.

Source: Autoblog

Related posts:

1. Aptera 2e Pushed Back Until 2010
2. Questions From Aptera
3. The Aptera Typ-1e; Yeah, but if it works …

Oops, looks like the December 2009 delivery date for the Aptera 3-wheeler just got pushed back into 2010. The Aptera has been a highly anticipated car from the green set, and this delaying move is bound to make some people nervous. The questions is, is the Aptera, or any other start-up car company, truly viable in the current economic climate.

Or put it another way: Are Aptera’s problems theirs alone, or are they indicative of what any new car company is facing these days?

In March of 2008, Aptera said that all of the development of the 2e was completed, and they were going to head to production. The only missing pieces, as far as the California based start-up was concerned, was acquiring the right equipment and workforce to crank production up. That was then, and this, unfortunately for Aptera, is now.

In the intervening 18 months, the sleek, all electric, three-wheeled two-seater that gets the equivalent of 200-plus mpg seemed to be inches away from being a real “car” you could walk in and buy, not just a fanciful concept.

So what’s the hold up? Same thing that can plague any start-up these days: Money. The manufacture and distribution is directly tied to the amount of funding Aptera has. And in the case of the upcoming 2e, developing the car has been running faster than raising cash. In other words, the car is already to produce, someone just needs to turn on the money spigot.

Ergo, the necessary adjustments of Aptera’s production schedule to bring into line with the current realities of financing. Bottom line, so to speak, at this moment is that the first three-wheelers won’t make it to showrooms until 2010, rather than the end of this year as previously announced. On the upside, Aptera claims that it already has 4,000 deposits for the 2e.

It sort of looks like a familiar story, doesn’t it. Very much like what Preston Tucker ran into … or John DeLorean … or Malcolm Bricklin. It’s sad though. There’s something rather appealing about the 2e, and I hope they get it off the ground.

Source: Motor Authority

Related posts:

1. Questions From Aptera
2. The Aptera Typ-1e; Yeah, but if it works …
3. Uh-Oh, Aptera Refunds All Deposits

This thing is called the Aptera Typ-1e.

It’s been bouncing around various geek, gadget and green sites for the past 9 months or so (or near as I can remember at the moment) and, if it works (and that’s always a big if with vehicles of this nature) it is capable of getting 300 miles to the gallon.

300.

Essentially, it’s a pure hybrid. There’s a diesel motor that drives a generator that charges a bunch of batteries that are used to power electric motors; sort of like the electrical plant on a ship. I knew a guy who was a shipboard electrician and worked on these kind of things, and they can be monstrously efficient, so there’s no reason a smaller version shouldn’t work in an auto (or truck) application. If you work it right, you get the best of both worlds: you can run it off of batteries only for short range (particularly inner-city driving) yet if you have to drive it a long distance, you can stop and fill it up at any gas station, and fill it up quickly.

Anyway, someone finally got a chance to drive one on the street and write about it.

Strangely, the folks at Aptera chose Popular Mechanics as the drivers, and this has been noted (jealously) by other geek & gadget blogs, but curiously none of the green blogs (probably because they’re too a-flutter to type).

My question, as always, is, ‘How does it work?’ What’s it like to take the thing out and wring it by the neck? I know some amazingly good sports car roads, and I’d love to see what this, or any other fuel efficient/car of the future would do on, say, the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Bodega Bay.

You’d have it all. If you started out in The Presidio, you’d have to deal with traffic, tourists, toll booths, completely oblivious nit-noids in Marin nearly squishing you with their immaculate yellow Hummers, then two lanes of asphalt that’s perched, literally, between the Devil and the deep blue sea. God help you son if it’s windy or stormy and you’re trying to keep up a fun rate of speed.

If this thing could do that drive as well as, say a Miata or an MR-2, then I might be interested.

Related posts:

1. Terrafugia Transition, Yeah, That’ll Work
2. Uh-Oh, Aptera Refunds All Deposits
3. Questions From Aptera