Guest Post by Eric Peters
GM just revealed its new electric Escalade – a huge, wastrel of an SUV that will start “around” $130,000. It’s an obscenity on so many levels it is hard to count them all.
First, if the “climate” truly is in “crisis,” then why the – expletive deleted – are vehicles such as this being made? Why are they being encouraged? Doesn’t a “crisis” require sacrifices? As in making do with less? Yet here is a vehicle that uses up probably five times as much raw materials to make it – and five times as much energy to power it – as something like the Aptera, which isn’t an affront to common sense but that probably isn’t something that uber affluent virtue-signalers want to drive.
And that’s probably why you haven’t even heard of it. So what is it?
The Aptera is a small, light, three-wheel EV that isn’t designed to virtue-signal. It is designed to be efficient as well as practical and – the big one – affordable (the projected base price of this little EV is $33,200).
In order to be those things, the Aptera cannot be anything like the Escalade EV, which weighs nearly four tons and requires the electricity equivalent of 15 gallons of gasoline to travel a supposed 450 miles (if you believe it will actually go 450 miles – in the cold – there’s a great deal to be had on a bridge that’s for sale in Manhattan). Even assuming it’s so, it’s at best a modest improvement over the 456 highway miles a non-electric (and not quite three ton) Escalade can actually travel on 24 gallons of gas, irrespective of the cold.
For $79,295.
That’s the base price of a new, non-electric Escalade. Let’s see. That’s a difference of some $50,000 to be able to not use nine gallons of gas – the extra you’d need to put in the non-electric Escalade’s tank to go the same distance GM says the electric version will supposedly go on the electric equivalent of 15 gallons.
Work out what the cost per gallon of that is. Then again, if you can afford to spend $130,000 on a vehicle, you don’t have to worry about how much gas – or electricity – you can afford.
The Aptera, on the other hand, is what an EV ought to be – if the point is to have a car that makes more sense than EVs like the battery-powered Escalade. If the point is to use less rather than waste more.
And if there really is a “crisis.”
Because it is not an energy hog. Nor is it a resources hog.
It does not need the two tons of battery needed to store the energy equivalent of 15 gallons of gas vs. the 150 pounds that 24 gallons of gas weighs that will take the non-electric Escalade (sans the weight) the same distance. It has a small battery sufficient to store the energy it needs to go almost as far ( supposedly) as the battery-powered Escalade will supposedly go – and the Aptera’s touted 400 mile range is apt to be more in line with how far it actually does go, precisely because it is not dragging around a two-ton battery (plus the rest of itself).
The Aptera’s curb weight is less than one ton.
The whole thing. The car – and the battery. Just 1,800 pounds. That’s the prototype; whether the production model can hew to that while also complying with all federal saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety requirements, which have helped pork up all new cars, remains to be seen.
But the point here is that Aptera is at least trying to make a light EV.
And if Aptera succeeds, an 1,800 pound pound Aptera would be hundreds of pounds lighter than any non-electric car on the market and half the weight of the “‘lightest EVs on the market (even a small EV such as the Tesla Model 3, which is a compact sedan about the same size as a Honda Civic, weighs more than most current mid-sized cars and almost as much as some full-sized cars).
If the production Aptera lives up to its 1,800 pound promise, it would weigh about the same as a ’70s Beetle.
And because it weighs so little, it can do something no other EV can do. It can make practical use of solar power – on the go.
Aptera says the car is light enough that the small amount of sun power collected by its roof-mounted solar panels can keep it going for 40 miles, without having to stop for a charge. If this proves to be doable, it will be sensational. Sun power – for free – for real. As opposed to coal and natural gas power, for real.
With other EVs, solar serves no meaningful purpose because it is not generally possible to collect enough sun power (within a reasonable amount of time) to instill sufficient motive force to move two tons of steel and glass. Let alone four. When these electric Oprahs run out of power, they stop running – and you begin waiting.
In order to be what every other EV isn’t, the Aptera is nothing like them. It does not try to be a family car. As a small (and very light) two-seater car – riding on three wheels – the Aptera is designed to be a single’s or couple’s car or a second car. Though it Aptera promises highway legs, these are not the point – though having the capability will be nice.
The point is that the Aptera accentuates the EV’s strengths by not being designed around its weaknesses. It is thus the one thing no other EV on the market is.
That being a car that might actually save you money (never mind the planet). People might actually want to buy it. And without being forced to.
Imagine that.
For these reasons, it will probably never actually become available. The government cannot allow such an EV as it would contrary to the whole point of “electrification.” Which, by now, is something all but the most starry-eyed dullards have finally clued into.
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The purpose of EVS is to keep you from going anywhere. These things can’t travel long distances and are unreliable in bad weather. The expense will ensure that the serf class has no wheels.
Taken a step further, what if a radical free energy discovery had been made ?
How would free energy, or close to it change society ?
Thinking like a globalist, they would want to ensure a smooth ‘ Transition ‘ to that Brave New World , with thems in control of course. So phase out the power plants, call travel a luxury, and replace it all with their utopia solution.
Be a good worker drone and maybe they won’t switch off your ‘ car ‘ like in Minority Report.
You will here of people being found frozen to death in those things.
About 30 years ago a young couple got caught in a blizzard while traveling on a belt road on the edge of town. Their car got stranded and covered in snow. They were not dressed for the weather and their cell phone battery petered out. Their bodies were found a couple days later when their car was dug out of the snow. Poor decisions on their part? Most certainly, especially since blizzards in this part of the country can quickly turn lethal for the foolish and unprepard. Guessing there might be similar loss of life in the coming age of the EV.
Can’t wait to see the next hurricaine evacuation using electric cars. Some people are going to virtue signal themselves right outta the gene pool.
An efficient EV?
Gonna get the Tucker treatment.
” . . . while also complying with all federal saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety requirements, which have helped pork up all new cars . . .”
Is is no longer possible to make an 1800 lb car (I think the last one was the first gen Honda CRX) that meets current safety requirements, nor does this prototype meet any number of other requirements and cannot be modified to do so unless it adopts current conventional form (which is the current convention due to meeting those requirements).
Spridgets are right out.
However, this prototype isn’t a car. It’s a motorcycle.
And you’ll need a motorcycle license to drive it.
In many States, you need not only a motorcycle endorsement — but a special one for 3-wheel motorcycles …
In my state the 3 wheel endorsement is given if you pass the test with a three wheeler and it restricts you to three wheelers. If you pass on a two wheeler you can operate any motorcycle classed vehicle.
Got my endorsement over 40 years ago and wonder of wonders, it can be renewed with the driver’s license every 5 years at no additional cost and no rider’s test required.
There are several of these around town; they are 3-wheelers, and not electric, and are motorcycles, yes (it’s a Slingshot, made by Polaris):
This one is a Roush Edition, and retails just under $40k. Madness.
Driving the Polaris is one of the greatest pleasures – it’s a real blast!!
Shouldn’t it have rented ghetto rims?
My Pappy said son you’re drive me to drinkin’ if you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln
My Yellow cover copy of the Edmonds classic Hot Rodding for Beginners don’t say nothin’ about non-stock FETs and IC modules.
Wat’s wit dat?
with the 4 barrel carbs and the dual exhaust
with the 4.11 gears you can really get lost
got safety tubes , but I ain’t scared
brakes are good , tires fair
Look out, I gotta license to fly
That Caddy pulled over and let us by
This is from the new voice of the people , Oliver Anthony.
90 Some Chevy
Why do people have to respond with ‘Anonymous’ comments? My father told me that if one can respond, don’t be a coward and hide behind ‘Anonymous’.
Join the WEF , since you know what’s best for everybody. You’ll fit right in.
Most of the low IQ jackoff anonymous on this site really think they are anonymous.
This is a common trait with democrats who suck niggercock and take faggotcock up their buttholes.
You read minds?
The mind boggles at how you could know this with such certainty.
Fuck, here we go again.
Sure. Post your photo, address, birth date, mother’s maiden name, SSN, and banking details, or you’re a hypocrite.
Yes, finally someone get’s it. A golf cart is twice as efficient as Tesla, Aptera is 4x as efficient! It is the ionly real solution, not a bunch of heavy, ineffiecient products. With energy densities of 10% of oil, nothing else makes sense than golf carts and aptera.
Let me mention the term,”Freedom of Association.” If White people could have White schools and White neighborhoods; they would NOT commute 2 hours to actually work in Atlanta. They would actually LIVE and work in Atlanta. Technological solutions to social problems rarely work.
My life has changed, but I would have considered a very affordable (under $20,000), 2-person vehicle that was all electric, got several hundred miles on a charge, could carry what I needed, and otherwise had no frills. Hell, my wife and I purchased a Toyota Tercel EZ the weekend I got a new job that I could no longer bicycle to. It was $5998, had tires that cost $20 each, got 35+mpg, had no air conditioning (this in So. California, and we even drove it from Riverside County where the daytime temps in the summer were over 100F, and not even an antenna or radio. Why? Because it was what we could afford. It had a hatchback so carried nearly everything we ever wanted it to carry (we also had a pickup truck), and gave us 155,000 uneventful miles before we traded it in. Manual door locks, manual windows, and nothing else except enough room for 4-5 average adults (at the time). There absolutely is a market for an affordable, no frills car…BUT IT IS NOT ALLOWED. There is now so much REQUIRED SHIT on cars that NONE can ever be affordable again (new). That Tercel wasn’t the last new car we ever purchased, but our 2005 Camry certainly was. Never again. I may have the money, but I sure as hell don’t want to spend it with any of these folks ever again. Used cars have been wonderful and will continue to be. How sad that affordable cars are a thing of the past.
y’ jes’ cain’t buy a car today unless it has a computer, so they kin track y’ and shut down yer car whenever they want to.
Two words: Fleet vehicles.
One more word: basic model.
Yes, they still make them. The profit margins are lower, so they often keep those vehicles waaaay in the back.
Unless they are “loss leader” then it is way out front for about three hours. Then? gone.
Of course they also baitand switch with the “loss leader” basic models.
They would announce the weekly sale in the paper highlighting these basic models, you would come in first thing sat morming [with that morning’s ad in your hand for the discounted pickup or car and announce to the salesman at opening time, you want that cheap car/truck
This is where they would start the act of “looking for the car” highlighted in their ad, as if “hmm, where did we put that car we jusr advertised?”
Of course they were really just smoking a cig out back before they come back and try and say “sorry that one was sold”
At which point you show them the newspaper ad from the same morning and say “impossible” or else you are running a classic “bait n switch” sales campaign
At which point they will check in “one last place it might be” and voila, you might just have purchased a four on the floor, am radio, no ac, manual windows,door locks, mirrors etc. car.
At least it used to work like that.
Around since the 80’s, the Twike. There’s a wiki page. Three wheels, two passengers. It really saves recourses, it has pedals like a bicycle, not solar.
Myself, I got a little ICU car. Not using it for short distances, bad for the engine, and not worth the hassle. Fed up by the propaganda, it’s a guilt game, religion. Discussing facts is falling for it.
A friend bought a Mo-Ped back in the 1950s when they first came out. Small gasoline engine with pedals if you were inclined to go a little faster. Would not be surprised if that concept lived on for a long time in Asia.
Small gasoline engine with pedals if you run out of gas. Beats pushing the thing.
No It Didn’t.
Many States require special motorcycle endorsements for 3-wheel motorcycles … I wonder if States will make the same requirement for these …
What we need is a car that runs on Brawndo!
It’ll first need EPA approvals.
Instead, the politicians just do us all “family style.”
With extra gravy!
This is definitely a more practical direction for an electric powered car.
Fuck all electrics- all bullshit for stupid lefties.
The 2013 Silverado I bought two months ago had 72,000 on the odo and cost 22k. Ain’t paying for new crap that depreciates so rapidly, plus thanks Biden for axing Keystone.
It’s my last truck.
I remember putting money down for an Aptera before 2010 and got it refunded years later. I’ll be shocked if it ever has a production model…. I’m surprised it’s still kicking around.
That piece of crap is a death trap
Once Marketing figures that out they will start calling it the Neighborhood Car.
It probably comes with a free Covid booster.
The Most Fuel Efficient Cars Since 1984
The Sprint was a rebadged Suzuki that was originally designed for the Japanese market. It was Chevy’s attempt to supplant the unloved Chevette. Barebones doesn’t begin to describe the car, but it was light, around 1600 pounds—about 1500 pounds less than a similar car weighs today—and had a tiny 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine.
…the 1984 Chevy Sprint, a car that achieved 44/53 mpg without a hybrid–electric drivetrain or any other fancy hardware.
They could have mandated tin cans for everyone to drive.
The Most Fuel Efficient Cars Since 1984
The Sprint was a rebadged Suzuki that was originally designed for the Japanese market. It was Chevy’s attempt to supplant the unloved Chevette. Barebones doesn’t begin to describe the car, but it was light, around 1600 pounds—about 1500 pounds less than a similar car weighs today—and had a tiny 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine.
…the 1984 Chevy Sprint, a car that achieved 44/53 mpg without a hybrid–electric drivetrain or any other fancy hardware.
They could have mandated tin cans for everyone to drive.
Yet the push to smaller, lighter cars made the light pickup truck the #1 selling vehicle today. Talk about, unintended consequences.
How many of these joined together will it take to pull my 30 foot enclosed snowmobile trailer 670 miles in one day? Guess I’ll be keeping my F350 diesel a bit longer.
Hasn’t Aptera been promising this car for almost 20 years?
Not so apt after all.