Continued from page two
Ryan: Could you talk a little bit about some of the refinements that you’re working on? We’ve read about the narrowing the width of the vehicle so it can get through the drivethrough and the piece about the rolling down the window, but we’re wondering if there are other details that haven’t been widely reported that you might be able to share with us.
Marques: Well, I’ll let Steve take that question.
Steve: Great. Thanks, Marques. Well, a couple of things. Let’s set the record straight a little bit about the front-wheel drive. There could be an interpretation that that decision was made recently. In fact, we made that decision over a year ago, and have been testing front-wheel drive units in secret around Carlsbad. So we just recently decided, Marques decided, to let that information go public. It was such a boon to the performance of the vehicle. It accelerates better, it handles better, it has all sorts of positive attributes. And so a lot of the decisions that have been made that are coming to light were made a long time ago. But some of the decisions that Paul’s leadership has brought are really going to make the product just an unbelievable product; it takes it from the concept where it was and makes it fun, makes it usable, makes it meaningful to people’s lives.. Little things that have a lot of value. Little things like roll-down windows.
Bo: Mm.
Marques: I’ll add another one to the table. You know, we talked about the roll-down windows. If people, you know, say in a purest sense, ‘I don’t want that.’ But when you start to take into consideration the way you use your vehicle, things like making it through toll stations and making it through bank tellers and so on and so forth, that it starts to play, in terms of just making life easier, that’s one of the things that we really want the vehicle to be able to do. Something else that we’ve done is what we call the ingress/egress, or how easy it is to get in and out of the vehicle, we changed the door opening so that it’s easier for you to glide in and out of the vehicle, where as before, the way that the build was designed, it was designed to for one approach to safety maximization, we’ve been able to open the door a little bit more, and still maintain the safety, and actually take the safety up a notch but still making it easier for the person to interact with the vehicle.
Ryan: Gotcha. Now when you say ‘roll down the windows’, you’re not talking about one of those handles, are you, that you actually have to roll?
Marques: (chuckles) No.. that’s…
(Bo and Ryan laugh, cutting him off)
Ryan: I was going to say, for a modern tech vehicle, that’s pretty low tech there
(Marques laughs)
Steve: A lot of those things are counter-intuitive. You might think, well, that the electric window is a premium of weight or energy, but the electric mechanisms now are smaller and more compact and less weight than manual roll-down windows.
Bo: Mmhmm.
Ryan: Mm.
Steve: So there’s several reasons for going to electric windows, for example. The weight reason obviously appeals to Aptera even more, because we’re very weight-conscious.
Bo: Sure. Moving to the front-wheel drive, I assume that before with the rear-wheel you had the type of belt system in place, and with the front-wheel, do you have one wheel and motor in each, is that the way it works?
Steve: No. We actually have a single motor and a gearbox and transaxle, and it’s mounted pretty much center of the nosecone, and it drives both front wheels. And it has a differential.
Bo: Okay. Alright, let’s talk about the battery for a little bit. Have you announced who your battery supplier is?
Steve: No.
Marques: No, we have not.
Bo: Oh, okay. So I take it you’re not willing to announce that?
Ryan: You don’t want to give us an exclusive today?
(chuckling)
Marques: No, we’re not.
Steve: We probably don’t want to talk about the chemistry of the battery.
Bo: Okay, I was going to ask about chemistry too…
Marques: Generally what we like to tell people is it’s our own special combination of lithium iron phosphate and pixie dust.
(laughter)
Bo: I was going to say, and a tad bit of love. That’s good. That’s the way you’ve got to make the cars.
Marques: (inaudible)
Bo: All right. Okay, so that Xs off my next question, too. … And the next one.
Ryan: Oh, geez.
Bo: That’s an awful lot here, talking about batteries. Alright, that’s alright. How about the combustion engine? The external combustion engine. Did you guys consider using like a Stirling engine or the Cyclone, or do you have something else, can you talk about that technology?
Marques: I would say I don’t even know what you’re talking about.
Bo: Oh, I’m sorry. For the… not the pure electric vehicle, but the hybrid.
Ryan: The range-extended.
Bo: The range-extended vehicle — did you guys pick out a specific range extender at this point, or is that still too early in the game?
Steve: Well, we’re working with several companies making internal combustion engines, not an external combustion like a Stirling.
Bo: Right. Uh.
Steve: Those engines are still not tenable for mobile applications there. They’re large, they’re heavy… they’re very efficient, but they’re not a good fit for our application. So we’re talking about, have been talking with several small engine manufacturers.
Bo: Okay. And how about the charge connector? Did you settle on a certain design yet? I know they just came out with a standard — are you guys offering a few different adapters, or have you considered what the car will be released with in terms of a connection?
Steve: I know the engineering team is on top of that new SAE standard. It is the connector made by Yazaki. But it’s very difficult to get ahold of. Nonetheless, they’ve got the requirements, the cad drawings, and to my knowledge they’re integrating it, but I don’t know when in the production process you’re going to see it.
Bo: Okay.
Steve: Initially it’s going to be a standard plug.
Bo: Alright. How about crash…
Marques: Just to clarify what he was saying, initially when we launch the EV, it comes with a standard plug arrangement that can adapt to a 110 outlet.
Bo: Okay.
Marques: So you can take an extension cord (inaudible).
Bo: Alright, great. And how about the crash testing? Do you guys have any results posted yet, or do you know when that’ll be ready?
Marques: No — the crash test development will be ongoing, and generally, not to be the big corporate auto guy, but that’s something that doesn’t usually get published until right at launch, because what we’ll do as we continue in our development, we’ll continue to refine and always improve. As we’ve said many times, safety is paramount in everything we do at Aptera, and we will -not- go live with anything until we’re absolutely positive we’ve squeezed out every ounce of possible performance we could get.
Bo: Okay. Well, I’m sure you guys are aware, they recently, the government recently passed that $7500 plug-in electric vehicle tax credit, but unfortunately it doesn’t apply to the three wheelers. You guys must be pretty bummed about that. Do you plan on doing anything to try to push it through?
Marques: That, uh… that actually sucked a lot…
(laughter)
Bo: Yeah
Marques: .. so, uh, we have had some conversations with some law makers and we’ll probably continue to do so. The good news about it is that many policymakers from all over the country… as a matter of fact, I had a conversation with a gentleman from New York State today call. They’re very interested in what we’re doing, and they see the benefit in Aptera’s approach over and among some of the other vehicles that are out there, so I don’t think that the battle is over for us yet.
Bo: Mmhmm. Well, that’s good…
Steve: We do have a very nice letter from the Department of Energy stating as such, reminding us that we don’t have four wheels; sorry, we can’t help you.
Ryan: Did you tell them, if you count the steering wheel, you have four wheels? (laughter) Hey, at least you guys are on their radar, right?
Marques: Yes we are. That’s a good approach; we’ll have to keep that in mind. One thing, at the end of the day, we hope that all areas of the government would consider a ultra-high efficiency vehicle that is delivering great performance and safety and truly better fuel economy or fuel economy equivalencies than pretty much anything else out there in the world, I hope they would consider that as they look at transportation for the future.
Bo: And when do you think customers or prospective customers would actually get to get into one of the 2es and drive it around, give it a test drive — do you have a timeframe for that?
Marques: I think you’ve already got some inside information. We’ve been holding off on saying this until… we publish a newsletter monthly, and our newsletter is due out next week, but we are actually going to be participating at the Technology Entertainment and Design conference in the first week of February, and that will be the first time that we will be allowing potential consumers to get inside of the Aptera and go for a little bit of a joyride.
Bo: Nice. And where is that conference? Is that in California?
Marques: It’s in Long Beach, California.
Bo: Darn. So far away from here! … Not from the majority of your customers, I would imagine. … Oh, which brings me to my next question: when do you guys plan on opening up the market a little bit? You’re not the only company that’s just focusing on a local market at first, and it makes sense why you’re doing that; we could understand the reasons, but there are a lot of people of course, like myself and other people around the country who would like to get their hands on one of these vehicles. How long do we have to wait?
Marques: Well, it (inaudible) a lot more than the local market. I mean, I come out of the auto industry, and a lot of the new and provocative products that come out of all aspects of the auto industry usually get launched in California because of… One, there’s less sensitivity to seasons, there’s a great automotive subculture here. And then from a standpoint of a high efficiency vehicle, you’ve got one of the leaders in terms of regulation in this state, relative to the whole country. But we’ll start here, and we’ll probably be in California for anywhere from nine to twelve months, and we’ll start to slowly move across the country, into the places where people have demonstrated a propensity to buy high-efficiency vehicles. We’re definitely going to move… we’ll be in the southeast, up and down the east coast, and then as we make our way around the country, we’ll fill towards the middle.
Bo: Okay. And do both of you guys have your own Apteras that you’ve been driving?
Steve: Not yet. I was driving one. Our internal name for the vehicle is “Zen,” and I was driving that as my daily driver for, I don’t know, three to four months, and then…
Marques: We took it away from him.
Steve: Yeah, Marques took it away from me. (laughter) So now I have to go back to my Prius.
Bo: Ow, geez.
Steve: So, what’ll happen is, like I told you before, with the whole rollout plan, is as we continue to build these preproduction vehicles… actually, the first preproduction vehicle was completed yesterday, and we’ll be talking a bit about that to our newsletter readers and a little bit more to the public, but we’ll continue to build those vehicles, and like I said, we’ve got a kind of quarantine — they’re going to be evaluated for daily life, daily use, by the management team and the engineers here before we go live, so… we’ll put Steve back into his Aptera here pretty soon.
Bo: Lucky Steve.
(chuckling)
Ryan: Hey, I want to ask a second ‘What can consumers expect’ in terms of price for this vehicle. I know I’ve seen numbers ranging from the mid $20s to the mid $40s. That seems like kind of a large range. Have you guys kind of honed in any more than this large range?
Marques: We are honing in, but it’s not something we’re in a position to announce just yet. What I can say is that we’re going to offer the consumer throughout the product lineup… You know, we talked about the electric briefly, we talked about the hybrid briefly. We will have a number of powertrains. We will also have optional contents within the vehicle to make it… it helps you to cater your vehicle to your particular lifestyle, the way that you live and interact with your vehicle, whether it be, you know, ‘I need navigation in my vehicle’ or ‘I need (inaudible) sound system’ or ‘I need an extra cupholder’ or what have you. We’re going to try and do as good a job as possible of making Aptera delightful to interact with and delightful to own. So, you know, $25 to $45 is about the best that I can say in this five minutes, but as we get a little bit closer to launch, we’ll start announcing official pricing for each model.
Bo: Okay. And one final question I have for you that begs to be asked. Just, in this economy, this is a big concern from a lot of consumers, that a lot of these startups and companies are having serious financial trouble. How are you guys doing and what confidence can you give our listeners and the consumers that you guys are going to be around for a while?
Steve: Well, when we closed our round of funding last year, we raised enough money to get into production. Paul Wilbur, our CEO and the financial team is in the process of putting another round together, but we’re doing just fine. There’s no worries on our end. We raised enough last year to carry us through this downturn, and we’re just keeping our eyes on the prize right now.
Marques: One of the things I’ll add to Steve’s comment is that we believe, and one of the principles that we founded the company on, is that we create a value proposition that actually helps the average consumer in an economic situation like this. So, where there are other companies and other vehicles, whether they be traditional or new technology that are more discretionary or harder to rationalize in your daily budget, we think that Aptera actually brings something to your life that helps your life in the way that you use it and the way that you interact with your pocketbook. So, we think that, to some degree, what is happening in the economy right now actually plays to our favor.
Bo: Great.
Ryan: And how strong of a contender are you guys for the Automotive X-Prize?
Marques: Oh, there’s no other competitor. (laughter) I mean, you might as well stop with us.
Bo: (more laughter) That’s the attitude!
Ryan: Aptera was my prediction, wasn’t it though? (laughter).
Bo: It was. Well, best of luck to you guys. And when is that award? At the end of this year or the end of next year? 2009, 2010?
Marques: The competition starts in 2009.
Bo: It starts 2009.
Marques: Yep.
Bo: Okay. Alright — anything else that you guys would like to say about your car, your company?
Marques: Tell everybody that you know to call in and put down a deposit. (laughter) Aptera.com.
Bo: Aptera.com.
Marques: You will not be disappointed.
Bo: All right! Marques and Steve, thank you for taking the time and being with us, I really appreciate it. It’s an awesome looking car.
Ryan: Absolutely, we’re excited about it.
Bo: We’re very excited about it. And we hope we get a chance to drive it sometime here in Massachusetts.
Marques: We’re looking forward to it, actually.
Bo: Alright — thanks guys, you take care!
Ryan: Thanks, gentleman.
Marques: Alright, take care, you too.
Bo: Thanks, bye bye! (beat) And now we’ll continue talking about parades…
——————————————————
Image credit: Aptera
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I am so excited about this car!! I am thrilled to hear they are getting closer to selling them to the public.
I am so excited about this car!! I am thrilled to hear they are getting closer to selling them to the public.
Nice to see the whole interview posted, thanks for your efforts.
I’m underwhelmed by Aptera’s communication (Marques the marketeer is especially patronizing: “pixiedust”, really gee, thanks).
For example: “Marques: Tell everybody that you know to call in and put down a deposit. (laughter) Aptera.com.”
Put a deposit on what exactly? Towards what final price?
I didn’t think the EVCast folks were offered much “news”. Aptera’s announcements provide little nourishment. As an early depositor I’m getting tired of their infantile approach to communication.
Love them or hate them, Tesla did a much better job of communicating with folks during their development phase and after. Aptera makes me feel like I’m in Nursery school. Oh well, guess it’s my nap time now.
Nice to see the whole interview posted, thanks for your efforts.
I’m underwhelmed by Aptera’s communication (Marques the marketeer is especially patronizing: “pixiedust”, really gee, thanks).
For example: “Marques: Tell everybody that you know to call in and put down a deposit. (laughter) Aptera.com.”
Put a deposit on what exactly? Towards what final price?
I didn’t think the EVCast folks were offered much “news”. Aptera’s announcements provide little nourishment. As an early depositor I’m getting tired of their infantile approach to communication.
Love them or hate them, Tesla did a much better job of communicating with folks during their development phase and after. Aptera makes me feel like I’m in Nursery school. Oh well, guess it’s my nap time now.
“Put a deposit on what exactly?”
The Aptera 2e, pictured above.
“Towards what final price?”
A base price of $25k, and up to $45k if you load it up with all options and the most expensive powertrain.
” “pixiedust”, really gee, thanks”
I know you’d love all development information released at all stages, right away. So would their competitors. Stating more would either give away the manufacturer or any power buffering scheme used.
I know waiting is always painful. But for now, it’s still waiting time. I know that won’t make you happy, but that’s the reality of the situation.
FYI, Tesla had no competition during their development phase. Aptera is going to be out in the US before virtually all of its competitors, but the critical distinction is that there actually *are* competitors this time. A more appropriate comparison would be Tesla’s Model S, not the Roadster. Can you, for example, state the chemistry of Tesla’s Model S? Or the exact price a person who wants X options will pay? Or anything of that nature?
“Put a deposit on what exactly?”
The Aptera 2e, pictured above.
“Towards what final price?”
A base price of $25k, and up to $45k if you load it up with all options and the most expensive powertrain.
” “pixiedust”, really gee, thanks”
I know you’d love all development information released at all stages, right away. So would their competitors. Stating more would either give away the manufacturer or any power buffering scheme used.
I know waiting is always painful. But for now, it’s still waiting time. I know that won’t make you happy, but that’s the reality of the situation.
FYI, Tesla had no competition during their development phase. Aptera is going to be out in the US before virtually all of its competitors, but the critical distinction is that there actually *are* competitors this time. A more appropriate comparison would be Tesla’s Model S, not the Roadster. Can you, for example, state the chemistry of Tesla’s Model S? Or the exact price a person who wants X options will pay? Or anything of that nature?
Of course Aptera will be out first because they went the 3 wheel route. This allowed them to skip the crash testing phase.
Of course Aptera will be out first because they went the 3 wheel route. This allowed them to skip the crash testing phase.
“I know waiting is always painful. But for now, it’s still waiting time. I know that won’t make you happy, but that’s the reality of the situation.”
No, I’m not in pain, just losing interest. As an early believer and depositor I’m losing respect for the company with each “newsletter” and web site “upgrade”.
I’m concerned that as an owners they’ll continue to treat us like children. It’s not the delay (expected that) it’s the b.s. What began as a “hell yeah!” for me 14 months ago is devolving into a “meh”. That’s not the way marketing is supposed to work.
“I know waiting is always painful. But for now, it’s still waiting time. I know that won’t make you happy, but that’s the reality of the situation.”
No, I’m not in pain, just losing interest. As an early believer and depositor I’m losing respect for the company with each “newsletter” and web site “upgrade”.
I’m concerned that as an owners they’ll continue to treat us like children. It’s not the delay (expected that) it’s the b.s. What began as a “hell yeah!” for me 14 months ago is devolving into a “meh”. That’s not the way marketing is supposed to work.
I think all this secrecy on the specs of the vehicle is absurd…Chrysler is coming out with the Dogdge Circuit in 2009 or 2010 and you can view all the specs from
A to Z on the internet.
I think all this secrecy on the specs of the vehicle is absurd…Chrysler is coming out with the Dogdge Circuit in 2009 or 2010 and you can view all the specs from
A to Z on the internet.
I agree with the comments about Aptera’s marketing and communication in the second post, I am also an early deposit holder and Aptera has consistently had terrible and misleading communication. Most of the press and related material from outside sources such as this article which has been written by die hard Aptera fan rather than an objective reviewer, this includes others like Popular Mechanics. I love this vehicle and the concept but Aptera has been nothing short of unprofessional and misleading about delivery time lines and delays. By the way the delays were not do to the above stated reasons and the delays are a full year. Aptera states the first production “intent” vehicle was released on the 16th but it really it is just another test vehicle. They claim now October as the new date but we will see. If they were straight forward they would not have so many upset customers. In addition the reservations are not really growing and they are now seeing many cancellations recently. I wish they would hire some real professionals over there who know how to communicate with customers. They have no idea how many people are seriously contemplating canceling.
Get it together Aptera, what you don’t know is hurting you! PS. They do treat their deposit holders like children.
I agree with the comments about Aptera’s marketing and communication in the second post, I am also an early deposit holder and Aptera has consistently had terrible and misleading communication. Most of the press and related material from outside sources such as this article which has been written by die hard Aptera fan rather than an objective reviewer, this includes others like Popular Mechanics. I love this vehicle and the concept but Aptera has been nothing short of unprofessional and misleading about delivery time lines and delays. By the way the delays were not do to the above stated reasons and the delays are a full year. Aptera states the first production “intent” vehicle was released on the 16th but it really it is just another test vehicle. They claim now October as the new date but we will see. If they were straight forward they would not have so many upset customers. In addition the reservations are not really growing and they are now seeing many cancellations recently. I wish they would hire some real professionals over there who know how to communicate with customers. They have no idea how many people are seriously contemplating canceling.
Get it together Aptera, what you don’t know is hurting you! PS. They do treat their deposit holders like children.
“The delays were not do to the above stated reasons”
Only if you consider what the company stated a lie (check the transcript).
“but it really is just another test vehicle”
Only if you consider what the company stated a lie (check the transcript)
“The delays were not do to the above stated reasons”
Only if you consider what the company stated a lie (check the transcript).
“but it really is just another test vehicle”
Only if you consider what the company stated a lie (check the transcript)
” I think all this secrecy on the specs of the vehicle is absurd…Chrysler is coming out with the Dogdge Circuit in 2009 or 2010 and you can view all the specs from
A to Z on the internet.”
So, who’s making its battery pack? What battery pack chemistry? When is first delivery? What options will be available, and how much will it cost with a given subset of options? What’s its crash test results? Surely if you’re trying to make a point about Aptera, I’d think you’d pick a vehicle for which the stats that people are criticizing Aptera for not having released have been released, no? Just the very fact that you have a two year range in your release dates (sometime in ’09 or ’10) didn’t occur to you?
” I think all this secrecy on the specs of the vehicle is absurd…Chrysler is coming out with the Dogdge Circuit in 2009 or 2010 and you can view all the specs from
A to Z on the internet.”
So, who’s making its battery pack? What battery pack chemistry? When is first delivery? What options will be available, and how much will it cost with a given subset of options? What’s its crash test results? Surely if you’re trying to make a point about Aptera, I’d think you’d pick a vehicle for which the stats that people are criticizing Aptera for not having released have been released, no? Just the very fact that you have a two year range in your release dates (sometime in ’09 or ’10) didn’t occur to you?
I think Ms. Rei, nee Pearce, nee parrot lover is working for the company as their official cheerleader and should not be trusted. Why does Aptera not directly address the concerns of their buyers?
I agree with many of the non-Karen posts above. Why the huge secrecy and unacceptable delays??
I think Ms. Rei, nee Pearce, nee parrot lover is working for the company as their official cheerleader and should not be trusted. Why does Aptera not directly address the concerns of their buyers?
I agree with many of the non-Karen posts above. Why the huge secrecy and unacceptable delays??
A lie, yes marketing BS, stating half truths, whatever you want to call it. why do you think more people are upset with them then not. What, do you think everything they say is he truth? You are brainwashed.
A lie, yes marketing BS, stating half truths, whatever you want to call it. why do you think more people are upset with them then not. What, do you think everything they say is he truth? You are brainwashed.
Karen,
Hellllooooo, are you awake? If this many people are frustrated with Aptera, then that means there is a problem. I’m NOT an Aptera depositor, but I can see part of the problem just by looking at Aptera’s stupid half-baked web site. They really don’t tell you much, and the whole thing looks like it was designed to entertain a 4th grader. YOU need to learn some manners as a blogger and stop belittling your readers. Otherwise when people see your by-line, they’ll ignore your story.
Karen,
Hellllooooo, are you awake? If this many people are frustrated with Aptera, then that means there is a problem. I’m NOT an Aptera depositor, but I can see part of the problem just by looking at Aptera’s stupid half-baked web site. They really don’t tell you much, and the whole thing looks like it was designed to entertain a 4th grader. YOU need to learn some manners as a blogger and stop belittling your readers. Otherwise when people see your by-line, they’ll ignore your story.
Carbon: My apologies if any of my posts came across as uncivil. Gas2.org bloggers are encouraged to discuss issues at hand with their readers in the comments section.
I’m waiting for the crash-test results.
Well, actually, that’s not quite true. I’m waiting to see them smash the side with a sledgehammer, fix it for less than ten thousand dollars, and THEN crash test it with the same safety result as a pristine vehicle right out of the factory.
I’m waiting for the crash-test results.
Well, actually, that’s not quite true. I’m waiting to see them smash the side with a sledgehammer, fix it for less than ten thousand dollars, and THEN crash test it with the same safety result as a pristine vehicle right out of the factory.
I’m sure glad I don’t live in California, or I might be a frustrated depositor. As it is, I know I’ll have to wait until they sell outside of CA anyway, by which time this discussion will be moot.
I must say, the front wheel drive switch comes as a surprise, though. I would think that would add quite a bit of weight versus the belt drive rear final. Sure, you get chassis jacking with that setup, but I can’t really see the Aptera as anything other than a fair weather road vehicle anyway (Try to imagine an Aptera in snow… LOL!).
This vehicle will fit into my “fleet” perfectly: I have a Quad Cab 4×4 pickup and a Beemer, but nothing in between. Plus, it can carry all the gear I need for a gig.
I’d take it from SA to Tucson, but not to CO. ;^)
I’m sure glad I don’t live in California, or I might be a frustrated depositor. As it is, I know I’ll have to wait until they sell outside of CA anyway, by which time this discussion will be moot.
I must say, the front wheel drive switch comes as a surprise, though. I would think that would add quite a bit of weight versus the belt drive rear final. Sure, you get chassis jacking with that setup, but I can’t really see the Aptera as anything other than a fair weather road vehicle anyway (Try to imagine an Aptera in snow… LOL!).
This vehicle will fit into my “fleet” perfectly: I have a Quad Cab 4×4 pickup and a Beemer, but nothing in between. Plus, it can carry all the gear I need for a gig.
I’d take it from SA to Tucson, but not to CO. ;^)
For all the startup EV companies, the crucial question is the warranty on the batteries. If it is insufficient, you are looking at a major cost item when the batteries go, far more expensive than replacing an engine in an IC powered car. The next question is whether the startups have the resources to honor their warranties.
Most of the startups are quoting ranges based on full charge and full discharge. Beyond these points the batteries will be destroyed. Even coming close to the end points reduces the service life. This is why the GM Volt is utilizing only 50% of the 16 kWh battery pack capacity by charging only to 70% and discharging to 20%. In addition they have a very high tech coolant system using liquid coolant. Temps over 160 F are destructive to LiIons. Road surface temps in urban heat island areas during sunny summer days approach these levels.
Toyota warrants the Prius pack for 8 years and GM is planning 10 for the Volt. Think twice about buying anything with a lesser guaranteed service life. You may find yourself still making payments on a car needing a replacement $10,000 battery pack.
Ask yourself what the capacity of your laptop battery is now vs. when you bought it. That may give you an idea of the difficulty of maintaing batter life in an automotive application. Most laptop packs lose half their capacity in two years but fortunately cost only somewhat over a hundred bucks. Not so with automotive packs.
For all the startup EV companies, the crucial question is the warranty on the batteries. If it is insufficient, you are looking at a major cost item when the batteries go, far more expensive than replacing an engine in an IC powered car. The next question is whether the startups have the resources to honor their warranties.
Most of the startups are quoting ranges based on full charge and full discharge. Beyond these points the batteries will be destroyed. Even coming close to the end points reduces the service life. This is why the GM Volt is utilizing only 50% of the 16 kWh battery pack capacity by charging only to 70% and discharging to 20%. In addition they have a very high tech coolant system using liquid coolant. Temps over 160 F are destructive to LiIons. Road surface temps in urban heat island areas during sunny summer days approach these levels.
Toyota warrants the Prius pack for 8 years and GM is planning 10 for the Volt. Think twice about buying anything with a lesser guaranteed service life. You may find yourself still making payments on a car needing a replacement $10,000 battery pack.
Ask yourself what the capacity of your laptop battery is now vs. when you bought it. That may give you an idea of the difficulty of maintaing batter life in an automotive application. Most laptop packs lose half their capacity in two years but fortunately cost only somewhat over a hundred bucks. Not so with automotive packs.