Aptera Claims Its $40,000 Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Will Launch This Year. Can You Trust Their Promise?

Nearly two decades in the making, the otherworldly three-wheel Aptera is headed to production this year as a $40,000, 400-mile EV that can capture up to 40 miles worth of free solar energy every day. Maybe. The California startup made similar promises in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2022 and yet it has never delivered a single vehicle. Is anything different this time?

In a no-frills booth at CES 2025, Aptera showed off its production-intent design with a new interior and details on the first cars that will hit the road. What started as a 300-mpg hybrid and 120-mile EV in 2007 has evolved into a 400-mile EV while staying true to the original three-wheel, two-passenger teardrop shape that gives the car incredible aerodynamics. Aptera claims an efficiency of 10 miles/kWh, double that of the most efficient car on sale in America today, the Lucid Air EV.

The Launch Edition, priced at approximately $40,000, will feature front-wheel drive powered by a 201-horsepower permanent-magnet motor from Vitesco, which is energized by a 42-kWh lithium-ion battery utilizing LG cells. Aptera has plans to introduce all-wheel-drive options and various models with both larger and smaller battery capacities in the future. Additionally, solar panels integrated into the hood, dashboard, roof, and rear hatch can capture up to 500 watts of electricity in real-world conditions, potentially generating up to 4 kWh on a typical summer day in California. The vehicle can also be charged at a maximum rate of 50 kW via its NACS port.

Ultimately, it all boils down to finances.

Aptera says that it has more than 50,000 reservations and that it has has crowd-funded $140 million from 20,000 individual investors, but it needs more money if it’s going to deliver on its production promise this time. At CES, co-CEO (and one of Aptera’s original founders) Chris Anthony told MotorTrend it will take another $60 million to finish the development work, buy the tooling, and build out the Carlsbad, California, assembly plant. “We’re still in fundraising mode and we hope that we inspire some people in this beautiful building (Las Vegas Convention Center) to invest in Aptera,” Anthony said. “We’re trying to raise $20 million in the first quarter of this year. That will basically kick off all the long-lead items to get into production, but it’s a $60 million plan to get into volume production.”

Anthony mentioned that the company has completed one of its biggest acquisitions to date, which includes the molds for the carbon-fiber sheet-molding composite body structure and the fiberglass sheet-molding composite body panels that will be produced in Italy. The forthcoming $20 million investment will be allocated for the tooling required for the diecast metal suspension arms and the injection-molded interior parts.

A significant amount of engineering tasks are still pending. The company has created four validation prototypes featuring the production body, which will be utilized to complete the suspension tuning and adjust the anti-lock braking system, among other responsibilities. Officially categorized as a motorcycle, Aptera's unique three-wheeled design circumvents many regulations that would typically prevent a small company with just 50 staff members from introducing a vehicle to