Aptera

[Robert.Boston]

I'm always sorry to see visionaries like this close down -- but this could be a case study in failure to understand what the market wanted to buy. Sure, they could have shipped the 3-wheeled vehicle, but I simply can't believe that it would ever have been anything more than a novelty item -- it's just too far from the market sensibility.

Here's where I think Tesla has it right with the Model S: I, for one, first started looking at the Model S with an acquisitive eye before I knew it was a BEV. I thought it was a great-looking car, on terms I understood and feel comfortable with. Most people have difficulty adapting to too many changes at once; shifting from ICE to BEV is a big enough change, thanks.

[doug]

Steve Fambro's reaction:
ApteraForum.com - Unofficial Aptera Car Forum - View Single Post - Belly UP

So sad for the employees fired right before Christmas. Chris and I know EXACTLY what that feels like, we were fired after our failed board coup in November 09. Yeah, just like the WIRED article. At least we knew what we were walking into that day when we were trying to save the company from team B's failed path of waiting for the DOE and accepted that risk, but the employees let go today were just hard working guys and gals carrying the dream forward. They are the victims of the management team...those hacks. They're done with, especially Paul, who has been the CEO of three different companies, each healthy before his arrival and bankrupt at his departure. Maybe he has a career in politics ahead of him? He certainly has the track record.

Under his watch of Aptera he has destroyed over $120M of shareholder value and $150M of deferred revenue. I made a graph of the company valuation over time, it began dropping on the day of his arrival, but it was always rising beforehand.

At least the idea of Aptera can be restarted if there is interest, unfettered from a Circus like dysfunction of a majority of the board and the utter incompetence of a 0-3 management team.

Hey team B! Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

-s

[AnOutsider]

Wow, he sounds extremely bitter. While understandable, it's always easy to say "I told you that wouldn't work" in hindsight. I think most knew Aptera was done well before 11/9

[doug]

Wow, he sounds extremely bitter. While understandable, it's always easy to say "I told you that wouldn't work" in hindsight. I think most knew Aptera was done well before 11/9

Who's saying "'I told you that wouldn't work' in hindsight," you or Steve? Steve was trying to save what he could of the company from the inside up until he got forced out in November of 2009. Before Wilbur and co. took control, I think Aptera actually had a chance of delivering some cars.

See Siry's Wired article:
Aptera Founders Ousted in Boardroom Showdown | Autopia | Wired.com

[user497]

I'm always sorry to see visionaries like this close down -- but this could be a case study in failure to understand what the market wanted to buy. Sure, they could have shipped the 3-wheeled vehicle, but I simply can't believe that it would ever have been anything more than a novelty item -- it's just too far from the market sensibility.

Personally I never thought the problem was the design, the problem was always the price. No one is going to buy a small car for over 25k. If you are going to create something that small (like the THINK City), I think you need it to be under $15k before people will adopt it. That may not be possible with today's battery technology but I bet that within 10 years we will see cars that look like the Aptera but that are much more affordable and therefore sell in large quantities. The price is part of the reason the Smart Car was selected as the worst car of the decade by AAA.

[doug]

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/...hat-never-was/

[AnOutsider]

I was going to say they should unveil it in hopes of spurring new interest. Not sure it will now that I've seen the mocks though. Someone on Engadget suggested they go to kickstarter. That'd likely be the biggest project the site has ever seen

[doug]

That 4 wheel vehicle kinda looks like the Loremo.


At any rate, I don't think Aptera would have gotten any traction on the "Camry" without first delivering the on the 2e. Once they proved they could actually deliver a product (even at something as low as Roadster volumes), they would then have the credibility to do something more ambitious.

[doug]

Now that the company is in Chapter 7, the founders feel more free to give their opinions on what happened.

Here are some of Steve Fambro's comments over at ABG (Aptera pulls the plug ):

... we began the concept of 'Palomar' - the named derived from a telescope that could indeed see a 'whitestar' (tesla's seden concept at the time), or in other words a more radically efficient 4 wheel vehicle than Tesla or anyone would produce. But, like Tesla, Chris and I thought we needed our 'street cred' by at least shipping the three wheel typ-1 and only afterwards could we talk about a 4 wheel with any credibility.

Team B [Paul Wilbur and co] wanted to skip over that and go straight to the 4 wheel but they'd never designed a car before! They thought because they worked at Chrysler or Saleen that, well, that was experience enough. They were like "oh cool, we're in charge. we've always fancied ourselves as designers, let's build a car!" Though they worked on small pieces of big projects in their Detroit career they were nowhere near qualified to do what they were doing.

The 'team B' was brought in to execute, not re-think everything or try and get all creative, b/c they were just not set up for that. But that's what they did. They all fancied themselves as car designers and being able to raise money...but they were't that either. They've left a trail of three companies that they've bankrupt. They are all done now, completely un-hirable. They can't run away from their own record fast enough which is why even to the bitter end they were spinning like a whirling dervish- lying in their farewell note to the world! Oh and get this- one of the employees told me that the CEO Paul and CFO were cavalier about leaving their printed expense reports in the community printer. They were expensing CRAZY things like trips to Disney for their families, expensive dinners. There are copies of those expenses and they'll be scanned and uploaded to the Aptera forum, I am sure of it.

The pigs were slopping at the trough for long enough ... but guess what? The trough is all dried up, you spent all of the money!

No please go back to Michigan.

[doug]

This is turning into quite a drama. The remaining Aptera assets are to be put up for auction. On the plus side there is some hope that co-founder Chris Anthony (now of Epic Electric Vehicles) might be able to buy back some of his IP and perhaps be able to at least offer Aptera Typ-1 gliders for sale to hobbyists. But on disturbing side, it looks like Paul Wilbur and his team followed a "scorched earth" policy and destroyed a lot of the original prototypes and molds.

Yesterday on the Aptera forum, Aptera founder Steve Fambro wrote:

...I drove by the Aptera building to peek inside. I met the liquidation company as they pulled up from lunch and toured the building. More details liquidation process will be coming, but on first glance it appears that Paul has cut up and destroyed the 2g (Gas Aptera), Punch (the hybrid and second Aptera) and PP5, the 75 kw AC propulsion Aptera.

He also destroyed the roof crush machine, the door crush machine- both designed and built by team A....who knows what else.

Today these videos surfaced:



more here: Just watch. - ApteraForum.com - Unofficial Aptera Car Forum

Someone should do some interviews and write a proper article about all this.