Photo: Aptera
Aptera has long championed Tesla’s charging standard as the most elegant and light in the market. It did so even before the EV maker renamed it North American Charging Standard (NACS). The solar trike manufacturer officially announced it would use NACS in its cars, surprising no one. What is still left to learn is if Aptera trikes will be able to use Tesla’s Supercharging network.
Frankly speaking, Aptera does not need it. As the most efficient production vehicle planned for production so far, it can have a range of 1,000 miles with its largest battery pack. Apart from that, the trike presents solar panels all over its body to harvest the sun’s energy directly. Called Never Charge, it can provide up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) of range per day. Anyway, having a vast fast-charging network would certainly be a competitive advantage.
That is not the first element that connects Aptera to Tesla. Its central infotainment screen concentrating all information and functions of the trike is more than just a similar concept to that adopted by the Model 3 and Model Y: the screen seems to be precisely the same one used in these Tesla vehicles. Either Aptera buys it from Tesla’s supplier or from Tesla itself. The software and the user interface (UI) are different, though.
Another example of how much Aptera is inspired by Tesla is the fact that it adopted a steering yoke instead of a conventional steering wheel. When it comes to saving weight, that may make sense, but Aptera should make sure it does not have more than one turn from lock to lock. Toyota will also put a steering yoke on the bZ4x, but the vehicle will have a drive-by-wire system and only demand around 150 degrees from lock to lock.
Regarding NACS, Aptera will commission the charging inlet and the charging equipment to Lectron, a company that already makes adapters for Tesla vehicles to use CCS 2 chargers and vice versa.
That is not the first element that connects Aptera to Tesla. Its central infotainment screen concentrating all information and functions of the trike is more than just a similar concept to that adopted by the Model 3 and Model Y: the screen seems to be precisely the same one used in these Tesla vehicles. Either Aptera buys it from Tesla’s supplier or from Tesla itself. The software and the user interface (UI) are different, though.
Another example of how much Aptera is inspired by Tesla is the fact that it adopted a steering yoke instead of a conventional steering wheel. When it comes to saving weight, that may make sense, but Aptera should make sure it does not have more than one turn from lock to lock. Toyota will also put a steering yoke on the bZ4x, but the vehicle will have a drive-by-wire system and only demand around 150 degrees from lock to lock.
Regarding NACS, Aptera will commission the charging inlet and the charging equipment to Lectron, a company that already makes adapters for Tesla vehicles to use CCS 2 chargers and vice versa.
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