Is Aptera A Scam?

Is Aptera a Scam? I will tell you how I came to my determination.

I will also tell you about Aptera’s history, Hub Motors, and tell

you the FAQs plus their answers.

On December 4^th, 2020, Aptera Motor unveiled their new car that they claim among

other things can travel up to 1000 miles(1600 km) between charges,

I’ve been driving a Nissan Leaf for six years and I’m lucky to get 100 miles from a charge if I

hyper-mile so 1,000 miles is quite the claim.

I was skeptical about this claim and about Aptera Motors when I first heard about both.

On this site, I will tell how and why I came to change my mind plus I will tell about the

past and the current Aptera Motors company and the three-wheeled electric car they plan to

sell.

I did a lot of research into Aptera Motors. The more I investigated, the more convinced I

was that the company and its electric car were legit.

I’ve become so enthusiastic about Aptera Motors and their three-wheeled car that I’ve

decided to buy and promote their car, If you also decide this car might be right for you, you

can pre-order by visiting the Aptera website here.

If you do end up pre-ordering, the above link will qualify you for $30. off the normal $100.

fully refundable deposit. If you do decide to pre-order, just click on the green button in the

upper right corner of any one of their web pages. The button looks like this:

After you hit the green button and are taken to the order page. It will still say you owe 100

dollars. Don’t panic, because your 30-dollar discount will be taken off when you reach the

last page of the ordering process. On the first page, you will be able to decide on things like

battery size, exterior color, interior colors, FWD or AWD, and any of the other options that

you might want.

An important thing to remember is that your deposit is completely refundable at any time.

Life situations change and when your number comes up, you may find that a new car isn’t

the right thing for you. If you think you might be interested, put in your pre-order now

so you can get in line as early as possible.

Demand is even better than Aptera Motors hoped it would be. I ordered in the middle of

January 2021 and there are over seven thousand people in front of me so I’m not likely to

get my car until 2023 or 2024.

That’s why if you’re at all interested, pre-order now and get in line.

When evaluating Aptera and their three-wheeled electric car, first, I looked into the

history of Aptera and this is what I found.

If you would like to skip the history lesson and go right to the information on the new Aptera

electric car, then click here.

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History

Beginnings

Aptera was started in 2005 or 2006 by Steve Fambro in his garage. He called it

“Accelerated Composites”.

He wanted to build a car that was based on efficiency. He soon partnered with Chris Anthony

as company COO. Chris brought with him his experience working with composites in his

boat-building business and was knowledgeable about electric drive trains. They soon

changed the name of the company to “Aptera Motors”.

 

 

Prototypes

Their first car looked like something from an old Sci-Fi movie. See if you agree.

It was powered by a 12 hp diesel engine and had a metal tubular frame. They knew they

were on the right track because it got over 300 mpg. They went with a three-wheeled car

from the beginning because they wanted to build the most efficient car possible. It seemed

to them that a fourth wheel just added complexity and drag without adding any efficiency.

Sometime in 2007, they built a hybrid with a small diesel engine plus a battery-powered

motor.

 

 

 

Also in 2007, they built the fully electric car called the

Type 1 which really proved to them that they were

on the right track toward efficiency.     

                                                    Here’s a picture of it.

 

Finally, they built the Aptera 2e which was solely powered by electricity and had a 100-

mile range.

Along with this, they also had a hybrid version of the

same car called the 2h, both built-in 2008. They

decided that these cars would go into production in

October of 2009. Over 4,000 people put down

deposits of five hundred dollars for these models,

 

New People Hired

Also in early 2008, Fambro and Anthony decided to hire a CEO named Paul Wilbur

and several other key people with auto experience. Wilbur himself had 27 years

of experience in the auto business in Detroit.

At this time, Aptera was trying to get a low-interest loan from the DOE so people

speculate that the new CEO was hired to give the company credence with the DOE.

Also, Fambro and Anthony may have felt like they were in over their heads.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but Anthony left the company shortly after the

Detroit people were hired. Fambro remained on the board. The new CEO delayed

production for one year when the 2008 recession hit.

I haven’t found confirmation on this, but I read one source that said that Fambro was

eventually forced out of the company by the other board members. If this is true, it

must have been a bitter pill for Fambro to swallow. Whatever the case, he did leave the

company.

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Turned Down By The Government

Aptera was turned down for the DOE loan because the loan program was only for cars

that had four wheels and since Aptera Motors had only a three-wheeled car they didn’t

qualify. Aptera immediately started to lobby to get the rules changed to include three-

wheeled cars.

To cover their bases they also started to design a four-wheel electric car. Here’s the render of

this car:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks remarkably like the Lightyear One. This definitely wasn’t the direction that

Fambro and Anthony would have taken the company.

 

The End Of The Line

Bottom line, the company tried to change directions which was very expensive when

money was already tight.

Finally, before the four-wheeled car was built, the money ran out and the company was

liquidated in December 2011. As part of the liquidation, most of the IP was sold to a

Chinese company. They planned to launch the 2e in China and eventually export cars to

the U.S., but nothing ever happened.

 

Who Got Hurt

Some people have reported that the company went bankrupt, but that’s not true. There is

an important distinction between liquidation and bankruptcy.

In a bankruptcy everybody gets hurt; investors, customers, suppliers, and creditors. I

know, a company once owed my company thousands of dollars, then filed

bankruptcy on me. That really hurt. I was counting on that money to pay bills.

In Aptera’s liquidation, all suppliers were paid, customer deposits were paid back and

there were no loans to repay. The only people who didn’t get their money were the

investors and they knew going in that there was a chance they wouldn’t get their money

back. That’s part of the risk you take when you invest in a company. If the suppliers

hadn’t gotten paid, but company execs got a big fat bonus then I would have considered

the whole thing a scam.

 

Con Men (and Women)

I’ve seen some businesses started where the founder has a sketchy background of

starting several businesses with the apparent goal of just providing himself/herself a job

for a few years at the investor’s expense or they may hit the jackpot with an IPO. I’m

talking about you; Trevor Milton (Nikola) and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos). Milton

founded several sketchy businesses until he hit the jackpot by taking Nikola public and

then selling 70 million dollars worth of shares and buying a 32 million dollar house in

Utah.

Holmes was different, she lived in a modest apartment, but some say she did it for

the celebrity status. It’s just my opinion, but these both seem like scams.

Both Anthony and Fambro went on after the original Aptera to found successful businesses.

They were successful before Aptera and they were successful afterward so they don’t fit the

profile of con men out to scam people.

It would appear that Fambro and Anthony really did try to set up a successful auto

company, but the car-making business is very hard to get into (just ask Elon Musk).

Just making an electric car is hard enough. Fambro and Anthony were trying to 

incorporate maximum efficiency into their car, but it didn’t work out. Some wrong decisions

were made, it looks like those decisions weren’t made by Fambro and Anthony. Money was

always a problem. I’m sure they’ve learned from their mistakes and will apply what they’ve

learned to the new Aptera.

Compensation

One way to check whether a company may be a scam is to look at CEO

compensation. In some scams, the CEO will pay himself millions when there is no

way the company can afford it because they aren’t even generating revenue.

Let’s look at the latest figures that are available on the form 1-K that was filed with the

SEC for 2021,

The 1-K shows that Chris Anthony was paid $211,558 dollars and Steve Fambro was

paid $180,808 dollars.

Those sums are hardly the millions of dollars that most CEOs pay themselves now so I

don’t see any sign of a scam in relation to the CEO salaries.

Anthony and Fambro each also received 549,000 shares of stock, however, Aptera is not

a public company yet so the stocks are really just speculation and are not a very liquid form

of compensation.

 

Update: August 24, 2022

Good news! Today, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded Aptera Motors a

grant of almost 22 million dollars! This is a grant, not a loan so it doesn’t have to be paid

back.

The CEC set out with the goal of awarding grants in four different categories of

companies in California.

1. 1. Zero Emission Vehicle Manufacturing
   2. Zero Emission Vehicle Components
   3. Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure
   4. Zero Emission Vehicle Batteries

In a recent SEC filing, Aptera Motors stated that they needed 50 million dollars more so

they can begin production. This grant will go a long way toward reaching that goal.

Besides giving them over 40% of their goal, this grant will make other potential

investors see that Aptera is a good bet and therefore they are much more likely to invest

so the benefits from this grant should be far-reaching.

Receiving this grant may also help convince the Dept. of Energy to approve Aptera Motor’s

loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, Under this

program, Aptera Motors has applied for a 150 million dollar loan. If they can get this loan,

then they shouldn’t have to worry about money for a long time.

All in all, good news indeed!

Update: October 1^st, 2022

Aptera Motors revealed their “Gamma” prototype at the “Fully Charged Live” show on

September 10^th and 11^th, 2022. The Gamma represents the third step in Aptera Motors’

path to production. The Gamma is made up of 80% production intent parts. The next

step in the path to production will be the “Delta” prototype which is slated to be done

by December 31^st, 2022. Once the Delta is done, the design can be “frozen”, parts can be

ordered and production can be scheduled.