Startup Says Solar-Powered Electric Car Never Needs to Charge

Perpetual Motion

The electric car company Aptera Motors is back from the dead — and it claims to have built a vehicle which, in theory, never need to be charged up, thanks to banks of solar panels on its roof and hood.

Of course, there are a lot of caveats and footnotes on the claim, as The Verge reports, and we'll get into those. But assuming that the solar panels work moderately well, the Aptera could present something on the road to a solution to the longstanding issues of electric vehicle battery range, one of the main hurdles blocking a widespread transition to electric cars.

Some Clarification

Aptera isn't claiming to have built a perpetual motion device, or that the three-wheeled vehicle's battery can never run out of juice.

Rather, the company says in a press release that the vehicle has an extraordinary 1,000-mile range per charge, factoring in its solar panels adding 45 miles' worth of juice on sunny days. Banking on the assumption that a typical driver will travel less than that, the Aptera could feasibly last for a long time without needing to stop at a real charging station.

 

Round Two

As a company, Aptera has had trouble getting its unusual design onto the street. After its cars were first certified by the Department of Energy back in 2009, the company closed its doors in 2011 after being unable to secure a loan, according to The Verge.

Now it's trying again and accepting pre-orders for its Paradigm and Paradigm Plus models, which The Verge notes could cost a painful $46,000.

READ MORE: Aptera is back with a new EV it says doesn’t need charging [The Verge]

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