Press Release
Is The Aptera Electric Car A Scam?
On December 4th 2020 Aptera Motors of San Diego, CA showed off a new electric car that it claims will go as far as 1000 miles (1600 km) on a charge. On top of that claim, they also say that if you live in a sunny climate, you may never have to charge.
I set out to see if these claims were true and to see if there was any chance this three- wheeled car would ever go into production or if it is just an elaborate hoax to try to bilk the public out of their money.
If the name sounds familiar that’s because Aptera originally was showing off prototypes of a three-wheeled car in 2008. They planned to go into production in October of 2009, but that never happened.
The biggest difference between Aptera’s new electric car and their older one is that the new one has “hub motors” (motors actually inside the wheel hubs). Otherwise, the body of the car is close in appearance to the original.
This earlier version of Aptera is where I started my investigation into whether or not the whole thing a scam because I wanted to find out exactly why the car never went into production.
I’ve found that companies like this one often don’t amount to anything because the people that founded the company are just trying to make themselves a job and when their house of cards is about to collapse, they file bankruptcy; keep customer deposits and disappear.
That didn’t happen with Aptera Motors. They actually had built an electric car prototype and a hybrid version of that car and had taken over 4,000 deposits for cars. Each one of those deposits was for $500. which adds up to a fair sum of money, especially in 2008-9.
Unfortunately, two things happened that were out of Aptera Motor’s control and prevented production from happening.
The first was the recession of 2008-9. That was not a good time to put a new electric car into production or any type of new car for that matter.
Tesla managed to just barely make it through this time period with their electric car and Aptera may have made it too except for the second event.
Aptera was turned down for their DOE (Department of Energy) loan. The reason they were turned down was because the loan program was just for four-wheeled cars and theirs was a three-wheeled car so they didn’t qualify.
The management of Aptera had counted on this loan to provide money to move ahead. This was a mistake. They also should have been looking for more investors.
After the turndown, Aptera management decided to lobby to have this rule changed. Just in case it didn’t happen, they also started work designing a four-wheeled car. Designing a four-wheeled car meant starting all over which was very expensive. Keep in mind that they were also continuing to develop the three-wheeled car.
Finally, in 2011 the money started to run out. In December of 2011 the decision was made to liquidate the company.
Many people think that Aptera Motors filed for bankruptcy, but that’s not true. In bankruptcy, creditors are lucky if they get pennies on the dollar. People that have put down deposits for products usually get nothing.
In Aptera’s case, all creditors received all their money. Deposit holders got their money back. The founders of the company both went on to found other companies.
Because of the above facts, I don’t believe the founders were trying to scam anybody with their first try at an electric car.
Fast forward to December 4th 2020. The new car they have presented is based on the previous one and is still a three-wheeled car, the biggest difference is the hub motors, but they have decided to make it strictly an electric car with no hybrid version.
In deciding if this whole thing is a scam I looked at what the founders had done between the time that the original Aptera Motors was liquidated and when they restarted the company in 2019.
Chris Anthony started a company called Flux Power. They provide lithium batteries for industrial uses. The company has been successful and was recently listed on the Stock Exchange.
Steve Fambro started a company Famgro that specialized in growing organic plants in vertical racks using hydroponics. This company was successful also.
The third founder who wasn’t involved in the original company is Michael Johnson. He owns an oil-producing company. He was also co-founder with Chris Anthony at Flux Power.
It would appear that all three of the founders could have stayed pat with what they were doing. All three were making a good living and are taking a big risk trying to start a car company.
For a more in-depth look at Aptera Motors and to get a $30. discount when pre-ordering an Aptera electric car, please check out my website https://apterascam.com