Aptera showcases new electric car that may never need to be charged

Àptera Paradigm

After shutting down in 2011 due to lack of funding, Aptera has now come back with a new electric car, one they say will probably never need charging.

Back in 2011, the company had tried to secure a $150 million loan for a three-wheeled electric car, the Aptera 2e. This was even certified by the US Department of Energy, but it didn't take off. The company has now unveiled solar-powered cars the Paradigm and the Paradigm+.

According to the company, the new electric vehicle will sport a 100 kWh battery pack, but its USP is the solar roof array. The company says the car charges up to 45 miles per day. What is also unique is the fact that you don’t necessarily use the energy stored in the battery.

“With Aptera’s Never Charge technology, you are driven by the power of the sun. Our built-in solar array keeps your battery pack topped off and anywhere you want to go, you just go,” Chris Anthony, co-founder of Aptera, said.

What this essentially means is that solar power is first used to power the vehicle with the reliance on batteries coming second. “Never Charge is built into every Aptera and is designed to harvest enough sunlight to travel over 11,000 miles per year in most regions,” Anthony said.

In terms of design, the Paradigm is a lightweight three-wheeled vehicle with a drag co-efficient of just 0.3. It does look like an aeroplane that had its wings chopped off, but that’s the price you pay when you need close to zero drag because, obviously, solar energy. It also seats two people, or like the company puts it, two people plus pet.

Aptera hasn’t given us horsepower or torque figures, but the 0-60 mph time has been discussed. The front-wheel-drive model ends the sprint in 5.5 seconds while the three-wheel-drive model does the same in 3.5 seconds.

Pre-orders for both the Paradigm and the Paradigm+ have begun at a refundable deposit of $100. With the delivery expected sometime in 2021, the price range is expected to be between $25,000 and $45,000.