Aptera refunding all deposits

[ENIAC]

http://aftermarket.autoblog.com/2011/08/15/aptera-refunding-all-deposits-for-its-ultra-efficient-t/

We just got word that the bad news is stacking up: Aptera is refunding deposits for the ultra-aerodynamic, three-wheeled electric vehicle (or planned hybrid version). In an e-mail to supporters, Aptera says it is returning every deposit made thus far, according to Green Car Reports.

 

[gasmiser1]

When Steve Fambro was ousted, so went the company and the dream. Unconscionable.


I waited for 3 years for the vehicle. As soon as Nissan announced the Leaf deposit program, I canceled my Aptera reservation.

I'm really happy with the Leaf, but I prefer a 2 seater. Nissan: bring on the ESFLOW!! :mrgreen:

 

[JohnOver]

When Steve Fambro was ousted, so went the company and the dream. Unconscionable.


I waited for 3 years for the vehicle. As soon as Nissan announced the Leaf deposit program, I canceled my Aptera reservation.

I'm really happy with the Leaf, but I prefer a 2 seater. Nissan: bring on the ESFLOW!! :mrgreen:

Same with me.

Before Paul Wilbur, I actually met Steve and he drove me around in one of the "mules" It had great pickup, comparable to the Leaf. Nissan, being a big car company is capable of supporting a vehicle'd development much better that Aptera could, and it show. The leaf is well refined...

Although I too still would like to have a 2-seat aerodynamic composite vehicle, instead of a reworked econobox. I love my Leaf. It's everything I expected and more. But I wanted to stand out more in the crowd and shout to everyone that the vehicle I'm driving is the FUTURE. The Aptera certainly did that!

I wonder if they would sell their prototypes?

 

[thankyouOB]

I wanted one, but I never really thought they would pull it off; and that seemed less likely as time went by.
I considered the deposit but it ran afoul of the big recession, which hit our household hard. and I wondered if the money would really get returned if the company had fiscal problems. I am glad to see that they are doing that, but sad.
It was way easier to put down $99 with a company that was not betting the store on one car.

 

[gasmiser1]

I think Paul Wilbur is solely responsible for ruining the original Aptera design and the company.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I think Paul Wilbur is solely responsible for ruining the original Aptera design and the company.

I agree 100%. Also running out all the talent to other companies and hiring incompetent cronies like Marcus and the CFO with the SEC sanctions and fines. Great Idea, hire a CFO buddy that was involved in the 2nd biggest accounting scam in US history to raise money. HIre a marketing guy that should be working at BEST Buy and destroy an amazing well funded company and run it into the ground. This is just the tip of the iceberg, what a joke!

 

[gasmiser1]

I think Paul Wilbur is solely responsible for ruining the original Aptera design and the company.

I agree 100%. Also running out all the talent to other companies and hiring incompetent cronies like Marcus and the CFO with the SEC sanctions and fines. Great Idea, hire a CFO buddy that was involved in the 2nd biggest accounting scam in US history to raise money. HIre a marketing guy that should be working at BEST Buy and destroy an amazing well funded company and run it into the ground. This is just the tip of the iceberg, what a joke!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+1

 

[DaveEV]

I talked with someone yesterday who's friend is an engineer at Aptera - apparently the engineers don't have any more insight as to why they haven't gotten the product out the door yet, either.

We were both in agreement that Aptera would be a lot better off right now if they had sold a couple thousand units as is - just getting those highly visible cars on the road would have been a HUGE PR win. I know that every time I saw one of the mules on the road there was a lot of rubber-necking going on!

 

[JohnOver]

I talked with someone yesterday who's friend is an engineer at Aptera - apparently the engineers don't have any more insight as to why they haven't gotten the product out the door yet, either.

We were both in agreement that Aptera would be a lot better off right now if they had sold a couple thousand units as is - just getting those highly visible cars on the road would have been a HUGE PR win. I know that every time I saw one of the mules on the road there was a lot of rubber-necking going on!

+1

 

[garygid]

They say they refunded my last deposit, but it never appeared
on any of my credit cards. That was almost 2 years ago.

I guess I will have to contact Aptera again to see if they
can tell what card they refunded my deposit to.

 

[SteveInSeattle]

The independant companies who planned on producing an EV really can't compete against the resources and deep pockets of the major automakers. I think this goes for Tesla, as well. There are many discussions on this forum about common parts between the Leaf and other Nissan vehicles. It is those synergies that make the Leaf possible at reasonable cost. And think about the issue from the side of the suppliers, if Nissan places a big order do you expect to get paid? How about if Aptera places the same order?

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

The independant companies who planned on producing an EV really can't compete against the resources and deep pockets of the major automakers. I think this goes for Tesla, as well. There are many discussions on this forum about common parts between the Leaf and other Nissan vehicles. It is those synergies that make the Leaf possible at reasonable cost. And think about the issue from the side of the suppliers, if Nissan places a big order do you expect to get paid? How about if Aptera places the same order?

Good point, I see precious little about this on the forum. I was looking through the list of vehicles on plugInAmerica's webs site the other day http://www.pluginamerica.org/vehicles. I couldn't help but wonder just how many of the 9 pages of vehicles on the verge of coming to production will ever get off the ground now that the Leaf is out and other less expensive mass produced vehicles are coming. The industry is changing so fast I can imagine that it's very difficult to figure out where to find traction for anyone but the deepest pockets.

Li-ion advances in the last few years seem to have made many extreme design measures no longer necessary, which must be very frustrating for folks who have spent untold hours and dollars finding solutions to problems that are now irrelevant.

 

[gasmiser1]

In April, 2010, I asked for my deposit back from Aptera after putting the deposit on the Leaf. It took about 6 weeks to get a credit back. That was even with a canceled credit card. New card(same bank, Citibank) was issued the refund credit.

So Gary, do follow up with Aptera and hold their feet to the fire

 

[TEG]

I was looking through the list of vehicles on plugInAmerica's webs site the other day http://www.pluginamerica.org/vehicles. I couldn't help but wonder just how many of the 9 pages of vehicles on the verge of coming to production will ever get off the ground now that the Leaf is out and other less expensive mass produced vehicles are coming. The industry is changing so fast I can imagine that it's very difficult to figure out where to find traction for anyone but the deepest pockets.
Li-ion advances in the last few years seem to have made many extreme design measures no longer necessary, which must be very frustrating for folks who have spent untold hours and dollars finding solutions to problems that are now irrelevant.

Years ago, I think many of us predicted, or at least anticipated that this situation could happen. That some major car company, probably from Japan, would catch everyone by surprise, and jump (back into) the market with a more evolved product at a price others couldn't match.
Along with having better mass scale supplier discounts, and product lines to cherry pick parts from, they do have deeper pockets to sell at near cost for a while until they lock up market dominance.

Also, I think we have Toyota's success with the Prius in part to thank for this. Multiple other companies wanted to create "the next Prius", and I think the Leaf is Nissan's attempt to take that crown away from Toyota.

On the other hand, the Aptera was probably never destined to be a mainstream product, and may have (or have had) a small contingent of dedicated niche customers that wouldn't have considered a Leaf as an alternative. If they managed to deliver vehicles by now, they might have still been able to sell some even for more $ than the Leaf. The Leaf probably causes more damage to companies like Th!nk and Coda.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I believe team A at Aptera had a good chance of doing well because there was a place for their product, so much so I would have invested in them personally. As soon as team B took over I was ready to cancel my very low reservation number and eventually did when I saw the writing on the wall quite some time ago. The problem with Aptera was team B not all the other market forces, etc. The 2e had a chance to change the shape of transportation and a bunch of corporate posers made sure that did not happen. Because I am privy to many non-public details it pains me to see how the propaganda and BS that continues to cloud the truth of what happened but It was as sad and pathetic as it can get in the EV space. If I had the time and resources I would do a documentary on this entire fiasco of incompetence. I wonder how their office chair races are doing these days.

 

[gasmiser1]

Steve Fambro, Aptera founder has a book in the works. As soon as the "non-disclosure" agreement is up(vacation, wink, wink) he's supposed to "tell all", per a thread I read on another site :ugeek:

Can't wait to read all about the circus/fiasco.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Just got this load of typical Aptera BS. PW is great at finding empty places to race chairs and them move to the next empty space. At least the cart/horse move will be near his homeland and I hope he stays there. The only thing they have not done is buy a sports stadium.



We informed you in May that Aptera was planning to look beyond California to find a production facility for our vehicles. This decision followed an exhaustive review of the financial and logistics implications of building vehicles in California versus other states.


Aptera then hired Cassidy Turley, a leading commercial real estate firm with experience in 21 national markets, to perform the search process for us east of the Mississippi. The team consists of Jeff Bender from the Cincinnati office leading the real estate search, Tim Monger from the Indianapolis office leading the state and local discussions, and Dennis Visser, Arick Stark and Andrew Ewald from the San Diego office who are co-leading the master planning of the state-by-state review.

Since that time, Aptera management has had discussions with a number of state and local officials throughout the United States and we've conducted an exhaustive search to locate the ideal location.

As of today, the exploration has been narrowed to locations in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. These Midwest locales - with close proximity to railroads / rail loading facilities, freeways and airports - are situated near an array of major automotive supply companies that Aptera has already partnered with for the development of our vehicles. Additionally, state policy makers have offered attractive support packages that will enable Aptera to provide first-rate training to our workforce and to quickly begin assembly operations.

"There's still a lot of work to be done, but we've made tremendous strides toward narrowing our field of options," said Paul Wilbur, Aptera president and CEO. "The next step is to finalize negotiations on specific facilities and partner with local officials who share our vision of a more sustainable future for transportation."

Aptera Vice President, Operations Dave Oakley added, "Between our corporate headquarters in California and our Midwest assembly facility, we are going to bring nearly 1,500 new, clean technology jobs to areas that have been hard-hit by the changes in our economy. Collectively, we'll all work to build the world's most energy efficient vehicles from the ground up."

Stay tuned...more info to come!

 

[adric22]

Steve Fambro, Aptera founder has a book in the works. As soon as the "non-disclosure" agreement is up(vacation, wink, wink) he's supposed to "tell all", per a thread I read on another site :ugeek:

So I gather it wasn't a production or engineering problem, then? Let me guess, somebody wanted to pump&dump the company by raising the value and selling it off or some nonsense like that?

 

[TEG]

I think the "how" and the "what" was more apparent than the "why"...

I suppose it probably has something to do with some investors having a different idea of how the company should work, and then some amount of lost focus, and thrashing ensues? Then it progresses to decisions to bring on board the wrong sort of people?

But do we still hold out hope, and say "better late than never?"

 

[thankyouOB]

they still have t-shirts and water bottles.
https://shop.aptera.com/aptera/itemlist.htm?c_id=APTERA&package=APTERA_ECO