Ultra Fuel Effiecient Aptera Poised for Production

Carlsbad, CA, US

If you haven't checked it out, you really need to go to http://www.aptera.com/ and behold the wonder of the Aptera.

The futuristic 3-wheeled vehicle is scheduled to hit the production line this year, and will soon be available for purchase in California for around 30,000$. The Aptera, which is Greek for "wingless flight," gets an unfathomable 300 miles per gallon of gasoline on trips about 120 miles in length. Unlike regular engines, the Aptera's plug-in electric hybrid does not have a fixed rate of gas consumption. Rather, the length of the trip (and thereby the extent of pure-electric engine run time) determines whether the Aptera gets 1000 miles per gallon (a 50-mile trip) or 300 (over 100 miles).

Though the Aptera is technically categorized as a motorcycle, the manufacturers are striving to exceed safety standards for regular passenger cars. The Aptera features air bags and a roll bar, and is already designed to exceed rollover roof strength and door strength requirements put forth by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216.

While three-wheeled vehicles are hardly a new concept, the Aptera's design, featuring two front wheels with one behind, is the opposite of what we think of as a tricycle. This design is intended to eliminate the instability to which traditional tricycles are prone.

The Aptera is projected to exceed 85 miles per hour at maximum speed. After a day of driving, it charges simply by being plugged into a standard 110 volt outlet for 2-4 hours. The cost of charging, based on California energy data, is estimated to be 1-2$ a day.

For more information, cool videos, and pretty pictures, check out http://www.aptera.com/.