Aptera Signs $44M Production Deal
$44M Solar-Powered EV Production Deal Struck
Aptera has announced a $44 million partnership with Launch Design to produce its solar electric vehicle. The deal makes Launch an early investor and gives Aptera access to Launch's mass production facilities and supply chain, enabling it to scale up without burning through millions like other EV startups. Launch will ship finished sub-assemblies to Aptera's Carlsbad facility for final assembly, and its ownership of Aptera stock warrants incentivizes it to help the company succeed.
The deal answers several questions that had been outstanding for the Aptera launch plans.
- aetherspawn
I work in this space. Took one look at Launch and instantly recognise the type of company they are (aftersales/paper pushing) and that this will probably fail due to lack of actual engineering experience with DfM, control software, etc.
- geremiiah
In a world where sedans have been replaced by SUVs, I don't see how the market would react positively to this. But then again, Lime scooters are paradoxically also a thing. I guess maybe it's a matter of marketing?
- standeven
This is like building a gas powered car with a refinery attached to the roof.
Batteries exist. Solar panels add weight and design constraints. Why is this a thing? What am I missing?
- roughly
I am a big booster of both solar power and electric vehicles, but boy, Aptera’s trying to thread a needle I just don’t think we’ve got the technology to thread yet. The efficiency of solar panels isn’t high enough to consistently generate enough power to propel a vehicle made of currently practical materials that meets modern automotive safety standards far enough fast enough to be useful, and I suspect they’re going to have to get esoteric enough in the materials, electronics, and manufacturing that the price is going to be prohibitive at the scale of the market willing to make the sacrifices the vehicle will require.
I don’t know if it’s theoretically possible to do what they want to do at some point - I don’t know if enough energy is present in the sunlight that falls on the space available on a normal car to power something that meets what the average person would consider their mobility needs - but I just can’t see it with the current state of the art, unless I’ve missed some big shifts in the last few years.
I’d love to be wrong, I prefer to be an optimist, but my inner engineer is just sadly shaking his head no.
- Animats
So there's a company in China, Launch, to which you can outsource making cars. Like Flextronics for electronics. So you can have a "fabless" car company.
The economics of that are interesting. Launch just makes cars. They don't take the market risk of having to sell them to consumers.
As for Aptera, "We are committed to commencing production and delivery as soon as possible. However, the exact timing remains uncertain and is dependent on several key factors..." So it's a Kickstarter for cars. At this point you have to ask whether the product is the car or the next financing round.
Also, it may have too much China content to be sold in the US. They may have to pay off Trump to get past that.