Aptera announced the Launch Edition of its solar trike a few days ago. When the company also said the vehicle would not have fast charging capabilities, hell apparently broke loose for the executives. They politely prefer to call the protests feedback, but the practical effect is that the Aptera Launch Edition will now be able to accept DC fast charging.
There were several reasons for Aptera not to have that. The vehicle focuses on energy efficiency, and fast charging would make it less so. The solar trike cooling system will use the belly pan as a radiator. It is the skin of the belly pan that transfers heat to the exterior. In other words, the solar trike has to be in movement to cool down the battery pack. That will not happen in fast-charging sessions.
This is why Aptera did not give a blasting charging speed: it will be between 40 kW and 60 kW, which will recover respectively 400 miles or 600 miles of range for the solar trike in an hour. If the Aptera did not have that capacity, it would not be able to travel more than the range its battery pack offers on any given day.
The 6.6-kW onboard charger that the Aptera Launch Edition has delivers 57 miles of range per hour at 220V, while that drops to 13 miles at 110V during the same period. The 400 miles of range from the 42-kWh battery pack would be recovered in a bit more than 7 hours at 220V and close to 31 hours at 110V.
According to Steve Fambro, Aptera was already studying fast charging before it decided to rule it out for the Launch Edition. When customers complained about that, all the CEO had to do was put that capability back on the table. We have yet to determine how much more time it will demand to develop that into production cars, but we were already expecting to see the solar trike on the streets only by 2024. That has to do with the money it still needs to raise.
Aptera stated that it needs $50 million. Among other things, this money will be used to buy the equipment it will use in manufacturing. The startup calculates it needs nine months after those funds arrive to reach production.
With the DC fast charging capacity confirmed, Aptera’s adoption of the North American Charging Standard (NACS) makes more sense. This is the name Tesla chose for its charging standard when it allowed other companies to use it. The company will soon also accept EVs from other companies in its Supercharging network, which may turn into a massive advantage for Aptera owners. All Aptera needs is to raise the $50 million it still needs.
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