Things are moving ahead rapidly in Italy and San Diego: All the dies for forging the structural and body parts have been made and tested and the solar panels have been redesigned to be more durable and less heavy!
Thanks for the update. Good thing I attached my sock-suspenders before watching that video! Has Aptera revealed how much that carbon fiber SMC pan weighs? If they can turn out one of those pans every 14 minutes, Aptera will be able mow down their long list of waiting customers in no time! Oh, the rest of the car takes more than 14 minutes to make? Is the white top part also carbon fiber SMC? If not, why not? If so, why is it white?
First off, that's not how they're worn - and they're "shirt stays", as worn by many a uniformed officer to keep their shirt tails tucked into their trousers. The stays should be worn on the outside of the leg. I understand your humor but the point is a valid one: Remember that CPC Group has multiple robotic presses running simultaneously, each forming a different selection of structural and body panels. A measured amount of Sheet Molding Compound (think of it as clay) is placed between the heated dies and pressure is applied to squish it into every nook and cranny. it is then held at temperature to cure to material before it is released from the press. So, yes, it's gonna take time but the presses can run pretty much non-stop: It won't be difficult to build-up an inventory of parts. One Aptera enters into full-scale production they'll have additional dies cut so that parts can be forged in greater numbers. As is briefly mentioned in the video, each panel needs to be CNC-machined to remove "flash" and to cut any necessary openings in the panels. This, too, will take time. Aptera has always talked about building 10K vehicles per year: They don't expect to sell millions of 3-wheeled 2-seaters. They assert that the have the funding to enter into "limited" production, which we've taken to mean (beyond the dozen pre-production test vehicles) that they'll be able to build the "Accelerator" models for the top investors and then begin working on filling orders for the 400-mile variant. As money starts to flow in they'll start filling order for the 250-mile variant. By then the hope is that higher-energy-density batteries will be available to start creating the 600-mile variant and - eventually - the 1K-mile variant. So don't expect them to fulfill all 40K+ orders within the first year of production! Aptera's shell (which sits on a cast and extruded aluminum chassis) has an internal structure of SMC carbon fiber parts (the black ones) with external body panels made from SMC fiberglass panels (the white ones). The roof and sides of the vehicle are made from the fiberglass material. In the video you can see the attachment points on the roof where the solar panel will be bonded to complete the outer shell of the vehicle. At this point we understand that the nosecone, the front wheel pants, the rear wheel skirt and part of the underbody will be formed from fiber-reinforced ABS plastic.
