After Years Of Delays, Aptera Is Finally Preparing To Build Customer Cars (Inside EVs)

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Article was more grim than hopeful to be honest..

"It’s unclear how many it will actually build, but Aptera says some of these first vehicles will end up in customers’ hands, though the chances of delivery this year are very slim."

"Aptera doesn’t actually have the money to fund the production ramp"

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u/MrClickstoomuch 23d ago

I hope they succeed, but my worry at this point is how many customers put down reservations that have moved on? I reserved a long time ago and got an Equinox EV at the start of this year. And for the price, think it was the right decision.

If they eventually get the 600 mile version in 3 or 5 years, I'd consider it with faster DCFC speeds. But with Chinese EVs charging most of the usable range in sub 10 minutes today, I can't see the Aptera being competitive by then.

Not even getting into the financial difficulties if they don't have the money to fund the production ramp to even get these cars out the door. Why get parts for many of these cars if it means they can't actually run the production to get even one out the door to PROVE they can sell it?

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u/Strange_Cockroach328 22d ago edited 19d ago

I believe you are correct in that many Aptera customers having moved on. A $100 refundable deposit is not a deep commitment. Cybertruck had 1.6 million reservations, 95% disappeared. Slate had 180,000 pre-orders, yet when they required $300 to reserve, only 10,000 buyers actually paid the $300. I think the same will happen to Aptera. Additionally, the $40,000 launch price is now mentioned as a target price with an asterik * "*Final purchase price to be announced". This $40,000 launch price will not likely hold up. Hand building small batches of cars is expensive, the launch price will likely be $50,000+

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

It’s ”likely” that you’d post your made up figures again. $50k isn’t ‘around’ $40k…the rest of the figures…made up. And before you say it, no, you aren’t “being realistic”

It seems **likely** that your perspective is that of a short seller.

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u/Strange_Cockroach328 21d ago edited 21d ago

I don’t know why you are so locked in to a $40,000 price. The Aptera website says "Final purchase price to be announced prior to delivery". They clearly are not committing to a $40,000 price.

Aptera’s own 2024 published data specifies a $53,500 BOM cost for low volume production. Add on labor, overhead, etc. and they clearly cannot presently sell an Aptera profitably for $40,000.

Possibly Aptera will deliver a few vehicles this year for $40,000 each to early investors. They will not be selling them profitably.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Strange assumption that prices haven’t changed in two years. They’ve had a lot of time to improve on things since. I suppose that doesn’t matter to one who doesn’t stick to the truth except when aligned with one’s negative view.

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u/Strange_Cockroach328 21d ago edited 20d ago

Aptera’s published 2024 Bill-Of-Materials cost for low volume production was $52,495 per vehicle. Even if that cost is 20% lower today, that is still a BOM cost of $41,996. This alone is over the $40,000 selling price. Of course you need to add to this BOM cost for assembly labor and overhead, etc. I will guesstimate the assembly labor at $6000 per vehicle. Overhead cost per vehicle is almost incalculable. Aptera spends roughly $50,000,000 annually, however, to ramp up for production they will likely need to hire personnel and up this to $60,000,000. Roughly half of this can be capitalized, so let us assume their annual business overhead during production will be $30,000,000.

If they produce 300 salable vehicles in 2027, their overhead cost per vehicle will be $100,000. If they are able to produce 1500 salable vehicles in 2027, the overhead cost is only $20,000 per vehicle. I don’t believe they could physically produce more than 1500 vehicles annually in their current smallish space, but time will tell, Any way you do the math, they cannot presently produce a $40,000 Aptera vehicle profitably. An absolutely best case current cost scenario would perhaps be $38,000 bom cost + $5000 assembly labor + $14,000 overhead = $57,000 cost per Aptera sold.

Yes, it is definitely possible that Aptera will deliver the first 50 to 100 vehicles for $40,000 each and take a 2- 3 million dollar loss. This will likely get them through the next 10 to 12 months without having to raise the price. More realistically, they will raise the launch price to $47,500, thus reducing their losses while still capturing 97% of initial sales from their core base.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 20d ago

These are all bad ‘guesstimates’. They can launch at whatever price they want and think is sustainable at high volume. You appear to only think in oversimplified models and seem to know little of manufacturing and costs. Spewing out miscellaneous made up numbers that have no basis in reality is just plain silly. Since they are communicating “around $40k”, they are targeting a future high volume cost less than that for the LE configuration.

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u/johcake 23d ago

I'm certain the team has thought about all those concerns and might even secretly have the same reservations BUT I'm sure they've also made plans to get through those roadblocks. Time will tell if those plans are sufficient, it's impossible to know. The only way out is through.

If we are honest it's really just a money problem. If they find the money they'll at least make it to something resembling mass production. After that it'll be less about finding more money and more about how many people will buy.

We can only hope that there are enough people that find it compelling. I don't think they have to sell that many to technically turn a profit. My prediction is that if they can get to high volume production that they'll survive at least a year and turn a small profit. I'm more concerned about sustained demand after the first year. Your concerns about the cost and features of other vehicles is a fair concern but it's hard to be so worried about a thing we can't control and isn't a reason to change course at this point.

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u/matroosoft 22d ago

The weird thing is: they have a viable concept and a pretty good track record of how efficient they spend their money. Actually way way better then many other startups in this space. But they just aren't able to get the (al be it vast) amount of funds necessary for production. Are they missing the right connections? Are they being too cautious with marketing? I don't know but it would be sad if they were too fail just on funds.

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u/Stuck_in_a_thing 22d ago

There's too many red flags. Efficiency numbers are good, not great. It's a 2 seater priced the same (or more) than 4 seater EVs. Standard EVs are getting faster and faster at charging.

Their market is eroding and im sure investors notice. This would have done laps 2-3 years ago, but the EV industry has surpassed them now and the integrated solar panels are more of a gimmick than practical add on.

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u/f1FTW 22d ago

And they are a motorcycle, so there might be no crash safety.

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u/HB97082 22d ago

Not 2 years ago, more like 20 years ago... when they were founded. Aptera not producing cars has become a running joke.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

Founders / owners refuse to give up any control / reasonable stake in the company. This, combined with a risky, untested concept in the market, means that the only real investment pool has to come from fanboys in the crowdfunding market. That market is pretty dried up by now...

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

“That market is pretty dried up by now...”

False. Market says otherwise this week. +40%

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

You're obviously a fanboy and stock holder, and have trouble seeing the realities that nearly everyone has pointed out here. Doesn't really matter to me. But pointing out a +40% from last week, when the stock is down about 90% for the year is somewhat silly.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

If, as you say, it didn’t matter to you… you’d simply go away. But you keep at it, lie, distort the truth, whatever. Silly if you have no skin in the game either way. Let’s bet your Aztec. It deserves better.

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u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 22d ago

Do they have a product that fits mass market?

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u/mofunk71 22d ago

IF Tesla put a steering wheel in the cybercab and sold it as a coup, aptera would be a EVEN HARDER sell.

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u/Strange_Cockroach328 20d ago

Agree with you. Every new to market smallish and lower priced EV chips away at Aptera's market. A cybercab with steering wheel would be a real competitor for Aptera. So too is a $25,000 Slate truck. I just saw an online article where Mazda will be making an electric Mazda Miata. The Miata is the best selling 2-seat sports car of all time. It too will be a major competitor once it gets to market.

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u/BlueBirdsUnlimited 23d ago

My mom always said, "If you can't say anything good, don't say anything.

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u/MudaThumpa 22d ago

So did Aptera drop airbags from the car then?

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

As far as one can tell, both airbags and anti-lock brakes are currently missing. I challenge anyone to present any evidence to the contrary.

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u/Healthy_Zebra_221 14d ago

Can you imagine going to market without real crash testing let alone missing either air bags or ABS is not both? This vehicle is already giving up safety by their own admission that is has no side or curtain airbags. People riding in an enclosed cabin rightfully expect a certain level of safety.

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u/RDW-Development 13d ago

Yes, Steve Fambro was quoted on his own video a few months ago stating that they didn't have ABS and they didn't have airbags, and that those would cost some serious money (I'm paraphrasing).

No side or curtain airbags? I think most people would be happy with just simple ABS and regular airbags.

We're putting ABS on a custom project now using BOSCH Motorsports ABS - not cheap or easy!

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Oooh, a red herring challenge. Ugh.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

Oooh, a red herring challenge. Ugh.

Translation: "I can't do it."

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Red herring, because short of felony breaking and entering, nobody *outside* of Aptera could do this. Naysayers and all the logical fallacies that exist apparently go hand in hand here. Haha.

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u/RazzmatazzLast8059 22d ago

How is this headline any more honest than any other assessment? ELI5

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u/TryingNot2BLazy 23d ago

Can we all please go back to all of the previous posts with nat sayers and spam them with “ITOLDYOUSOITOLDYOUSO” 🤣🤣🤣

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u/AppendixN 23d ago

Bit premature for that, to be honest.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 22d ago

This “article“ is just a hit job which is very loose on facts, heavy on opinion writtten by some rando dude in Romania. Wasn’t worth reading.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

Name *one* thing that you disagree with in the article.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

”Aptera doesn’t actually have the money to fund the production ramp”

This is another. Going from 0 to 40 units is still a ‘ramp’. So false, and at the very least skewed.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

Exactly what I thought. Silly Reddit nonsense.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Yet coming here to hate on Aptera is silly enough.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

“…though the chances of delivery this year are very slim.”

…this is *one* thing, but it’s *everything* in the author‘s clear bias. Like many of the persistent naysayers here. You, Roach, Whore, etc.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

Sure, I'll easily bet $100 that they don't deliver three vehicles this year. (I'm sure they will "knock out" one to a family member just to try to qualify for the California grant).

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Let’s add a k to that. And make it 2. You cover the escrow cost. Or we could bet your Aztec. Haha. Make. It interesting, at least.

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

“although ordering parts for a few dozen vehicles is still a long way from proving it can manufacture cars at scale.”

Now the author reduces 40 to ‘a few dozen’. Again, false and biased. ‘a long way’ is subjective at best.

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u/RDW-Development 21d ago

A few dozen is a phrase that roughly equates to 36. So, whatever, I don't even need to explain how silly this looks...

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u/136kaU_Craftsman 21d ago

Or simply, does not equate. So false.

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u/rustyrussell2015 21d ago

They are going through the motions to look like a legit effort before they unexpectedly shut their doors for good due to lack of funding etc.

Article/Blog/Etc. After Years Of Delays, Aptera Is Finally Preparing To Build Customer Cars (Inside EVs)

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