Aptera Letter Confirms 10-Month Production Delay, Seeks Cash Commitments
By John O'Dell January 7, 2009
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Like most other start-up carmakers, especially those trying to make a go of it in the present economic turmoil, would-be EV-maker Aptera has experienced its share of delays.
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Aptera's unusual design for a lightweight EV borrows from aircraft engineering and sci-fi movies.
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The company recently said it now is looking at a late 2009 retail launch of its first model, the three-wheel Aptera 2e - previously called the Typ-1. That's almost a year after the previously announced goal of a retail launch by the end of 2008.
Now, in a letter to Aptera customers, a copy of which was sent to Green Car Advisor by an outside source, the San Diego-based company sets down the reasons for the delay and lays out its new timetable in some detail.
The letter makes it clear that while Aptera's founding team may have been adept at designing and engineering a working prototype electric vehicle, it hasn't had much experience developing a car that actually meets the wants and needs of consumers.
That's what's being worked on now, following a concerted effort to bolster the company's management team with people who actually have built and marketed production cars.
Although initial plans called for retail deliveries to have begun a week or so ago, the letter informs Aptera customers who've placed $500 deposits with the company that the very first production model now will roll off the line Jan. 16, a little more than a week from now.
But it won't be sent to a retail customer.
Instead, it apparently will be the first of a small fleet of test vehicles the company now fees it needs.
Volume production of retail models, according to the letter, won't begin until Oct. 1., almost 10 months down the road.
A Car You Can Use
The reason, the letter says, is that the company is now focused on making its vehicles more consumer-friendly, with features like roll-up windows that weren't part of the original plan.
"For months we have been receiving important feedback from you, our depositor community, and we have come to realize there were flaws in our initial product assumptions -- specifically as it pertains to satisfying the needs of real-world consumers," the company wrote.
"Our greatest degree of learning came just a few months ago when we asked all of you to participate in a brief survey...and we discovered a notable disconnect between our product plan and realistic expectations. Some modifications had to be made."
As an example, the letter says, customer feed-back "helped us realize that some trade-offs for convenience (like being able to grab a burger in a drive-thru) might be necessary to make the ownership experience more palatable, even if it cost us a couple tenths of a point on our drag coefficient."
After recruiting a number of automotive and tech specialists to the Aptera team, the letter continues, "we are now in a better position to resolve all of the fundamental product usage questions that have been brought to our attention by our initial depositors."
Vote With Your Cash
The company also asks its prospective initial customers to give it a vote of confidence - and help it better gauge firm demand for the 2e - by volunteering to convert their refundable deposits into non-refundable down payments to "lock in" their orders.
Customers who do so, the company said, will receive an additional $250 credit toward the purchase price of their cars. "We will give you an additional 50 percent return on your money for sticking with us," the company wrote.
In an attempt to assure customers that the conversion offer isn't a ploy to raise additional operating funds, the letter states that none of the deposit money will be used to fund the company and that all will continue to be held in escrow "until you move to transact the purchase of your vehicle, which is when any and all credits will be applied."
Aptera so far has been financed with private investment, including a $2.75 million infusion last summer from RechargeIT, a unit that Google.org started to foster development of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
In its letter, though, the company makes wistful mention of its hopes of a public offering:
"We are prudently trying to plan our volume and capacity to assure we do not introduce waste into our system that could lead us down the unenviable path of some of our industry predecessors. And who knows, maybe Wall Street will see us as a role model for offering these types of returns on investments."
Stay tuned.
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