History
In January 2006, startup Accelerated Composites issued a press release detailing an automobile design that would get an estimated 330 miles per US gallon (0.71 L/100 km) at 65 mph (105 km/h).
The Mk-0 technology demonstrator was unveiled at the TED Conference in March 2007.
In August 2007, it was announced that Aptera was one of the first 30 participants in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, where they were considered a front-runner in the alternate class. Aptera made it to the finals of the event in 2010, where they failed to finish the performance race due to a battery overload from the regenerative braking system. During validation, the competing vehicle was independently measured to have energy efficiency of 195 MPGe.
On April 22, 2008, Aptera announced that Neil Hannemann, who previously led a number of projects including the Dodge Viper, the Ford GT, and the Saleen S7, was hired as SVP of Program Management & Manufacturing.
On June 24, 2008, they announced that Tony Kirton was hired as Chief Marketing Officer. He had previously worked for “five years as Director of Marketing at Audi of America, Vice President of Sales for Volkswagen & Audi in Great Britain, and Chief Marketing Officer on the executive board of BMW’s South African marketing and manufacturing subsidiary,” as well as independent branding and marketing consulting.
On September 3, 2008, Aptera revealed that Steve Fambro hired Paul Wilbur as Aptera’s new CEO and assumed the title of Chief Technical Officer. This led some to speculate that Fambro would be ousted, similar to Martin Eberhard of Tesla Motors and Daniel Riegert of Phoenix Motorcars. Shortly thereafter, Marques McCammon, who previously worked with Wilbur at both American Specialty Cars and Saleen, Inc., replaced Tony Kirton as CMO, and David Oakley replaced Neil Hannemann as senior VP of Manufacturing. David Oakley and founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony left the company at the end of 2009.
Chief Engineer Tom Reichenbach joined the company in October 2008. He was formerly Vehicle Engineering Manager for both the Ford GT and the Shelby GT 500.
On March 11, 2009, the federal government summarily denied loans to Aptera Motors under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, due to wording which limited loans to four-wheeled vehicle research and production. After a lobbying effort which changed the wording of the bill to allow high-mileage three-wheeled vehicles, Aptera Corp. reapplied for federal government loans from the Dept. of Energy as of October 30, 2009. The amount requested was $184 million.
On December 2, 2011, Aptera Motors announced it was going out of business due to lack of financing to continue development of its electric cars.
Read more about this topic: Aptera Motors
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