(March 18, 2009) Aptera is one of numerous startups trying to break into the alternative fuel vehicle space. The company's futuristic looking three-wheeled 2e has drawn attention for both its appearance as well as its electric power-train. The company has also made some news recently for its support of a bill in congress to amend the rules covering the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP).

The ATVMIP was established as part of the 2007 energy bill that also brought the first new corporate average fuel economy requirements in 20 years. The ATVMIP set aside $25 billion ostensibly to help automakers pay for the cost of developing and building the new vehicles that would be required to meet the 35 mpg CAFE standard. However, the program was not exclusive to the Detroit automakers.

In fact it was open to any company manufacturing motor vehicles in the United States. The problem from Aptera's perspective is the definition of motor vehicles. These are vehicles with four or more wheels that meet federal motor vehicle safety standards. The 2e is a three wheeled vehicle and is thus classified as a motor cycle. Two and three wheeled vehicles are exempt from motor vehicle safety requirements.

Other manufacturers and distributors, notably Zap! have used this provision to import small three wheeled electric vehicles from China. Because they are exempt from safety requirements these vehicles do not have to be crash tested or certified even though they are allowed to legally be driven on public roads. However, consumers who do are not adequately informed may be under the assumption that since these vehicles have full body work they may in fact be classed as cars.

Aptera's promotional materials for the 2e have always touted the vehicle's safety in addition to its efficiency. GFF spoke with Marques McCammon, Aptera Chief Marketing Officer about the 2e design and concerns about its safety.

McCammon emphasized what other Aptera officials have said previously, that the 2e was not designed as a three wheeler in order to skirt safety rules. Instead, as he told GFF it was about "making the vehicle as efficient as humanly possible." A range of 30-40 miles a day for an electric vehicle "wasn't really acceptable," but getting "north of 100 miles, I have vehicle I can actually live with."

Company founder Steve Fambro took "efficiency and safety as the first paramount aspects of the design and let everything else fall out from there." McCammon told GFF that the three wheel configuration "had nothing to do with the motorcycle (classification), it was really for efficiency." After discarding the idea of doing an electric conversion of an existing vehicle, Fambro determined that at highway speeds more then half the energy required to keep the vehicle is used just to displace the air.

The other key factor was the weight of the vehicle and energy required to accelerate extra mass. Just as aerodynamic realities led General Motors designers to completely re-shape the Chevrolet Volt in going from concept to production it also led to the tear-drop shape of 2e. Since the Aptera design team was not constrained by having to build a four seat car for the mass market, they were able to go with a far more radical shape that brought the coefficient of drag down to only 0.15 compared to the estimated 0.26-0.27 for the Volt.

The theory behind eliminating a fourth wheel was that it would "reduce rolling resistance, reduce overall weight of the vehicle and reduce frontal area of the vehicle, making the vehicle more efficient." McCammon tells GFF "we're not motorcycle by choice, we're motorcycle because that's the way the regulations are set."

Despite being classified by law as a motorcycle because of its configuration, McCammon claims the 2e is being developed to pass the same safety requirements as a car. "We're designing the vehicle to the standards for an automobile." Fifty percent of Aptera's management team comes out of Detroit and "we set about moving the vehicle to production we know one way to do it. We're creative in trying to find new ways to move quickly and new ways to make the vehicle better, but there's a way to make a vehicle and that's the way that we're doing it."

"We're designing the vehicle to act like a car, function like a car, meet the standards and the expectations of an automobile and we're doing it the same way that we would do it if we were at Ford, GM or Chrysler."

With the pod like shape of the 2e, one might not expect much protection in the event of a crash. However, the body is designed with "rear impact zone, front impact zone, side impact door beams," air-bags, and the roof structure needed to pass all the safety needs of a "car"

The side impact door beams are made of a composite material so that in an impact, "they don't yield, they deform elastically" according to McCammon. This allows the beams to return to their original shape when the energy is removed. This has the potential to greatly reduce repair costs as well reducing the risk of someone getting trapped inside the vehicle.

The roll structure is constructed from a structural composite that "is so strong that when we tested it we have gone to as much as three times the static roof crush standard and never, ever touched the roll beam." The composite material is a proprietary one using "woven glass wrapped around a sandwich core. It's very lightweight, not as light as carbon fiber but very lightweight relative to steel and very strong." Aptera has a standing challenge to anyone who stops buy their facility that if they can hit vehicle and put a permanent dent in it, they will receive $100. McCammon tells us the same vehicle that people are beating on is the one that went through the static roof-crush test and no one has dented it yet.

The two seat 2e has two frontal air-bags and one in each door for head and thorax protection. Aptera is also implementing a seat belt inter-lock system that will put the vehicle into a low speed limp-home mode if the restraints are not buckled. McCammon says that Aptera is "trying to encourage people to keep those seat-belts fastened."

While Aptera is not legally required to crash test its vehicles, McCammon tells us that Aptera is "going to be crash testing our vehicles the same way that we would have done it at Ford or Chrysler."

With the outrigger design of the front wheels, GFF asked McCammon how the repair costs might compare to a conventional vehicle. "In general, I would expect our repair costs to comparable or less, because our vehicle is relatively simple. I would say the most similar example that we have in the marketplace for our wheel design is the Plymouth Prowler. We look at that and other vehicles for how we predict frontal offset performance."

"The truth of the matter is that all the tests aren't done yet. As a part of normal vehicle development, any auto manufacturer that you were to talk to, we're doing the same as they would, we're continuously testing and developing right up to the point of delivering vehicles. It's an ongoing process and we'll continue with that until we're absolutely confident that our vehicles are safe and sound and we won't put them on the road before that."

Returning to the subject of the ATVMIP loan rules, McCammon states that Aptera's "perspective is that we want the government to give consideration to people who are trying to make vehicles that are really going to make a significant difference in driver efficiency and not doing that at risk of public safety." The way that the proposed amendment to the existing rules is written vehicles that have the occupants inside of a closed cabin and achieve a 75 mpg or greater equivalent would be considered for the loan program.

McCammon is adamant that safety is paramount to Aptera. The company has certainly developed an innovative design that should be extremely efficient. The current plan is begin delivering vehicles to customers in the fourth quarter of 2009 at a price of somewhere between $25,000 and $40,000. Only time will tell if Aptera is able to live up to all of its targets.