Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Aptera Sighting in DC!

I almost missed it b/c I was looking the wrong way, but then noticed everyone else on 17th Street staring at the same thing...Aptera is in DC to chat with some politicians about (what else, these days?) loans, manufacturing loans to be specific.

I was just getting used to seeing Smart cars every once in a while, but this was much cooler to see in person; the first future-car technology that I've seen - live, in motion, on a city street - that actually looks like it belongs in the future.

B/c Mr. Grau requested, nay, demanded it, more info on Aptera:

Their web site. Not a lot of concrete stats or numbers yet, but they're supposedly forthcoming. They're also rumored to be delivering the first production model to a real-life customer by the end of this month! Sales to California residents only, though. They're also going t have two initial versions of their 2-seater, an all-electric and a hybrid. They've hinted at a regular ICE as well, possibly in two flavors (gasoline and vanilla, um, diesel).

Here's the test drive by Road & Track last month. They really liked it!

5 comments:

Ryon said...

wait, woah, smart cars? I see about a billion of those in London.. but this aptera, wait whats going on there? tell me a story?

Ryon said...

I mean these:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/smart-car-1.jpg

Anonymous said...

Saw it too, driving home on the GW parkway yesterday afternoon.

Ryon said...

well, too bad there's no room for a car seat, papa!

Ryon said...

having had a look at it, can I say, WOW that must have been quite a feeling, seeing that thing wheel down the street. (enough to blog about I guess..) that's definitely pretty cool, though I do have to wonder if it being so ultralight has an impact one safety- sure it might not crumple (though 10 employees standing on the roof isn't eactly convincing safety testing for me thanks), but it cant be good if you're bounsing around like a ping pong ball.