Item — HN Reader

Is that legit? That looks like vaporware scam to be honest

Edit: the fact the official aptera website has a banner at the top with their stock ticker is very suspicious, I assume it was a spac that didn’t go well?

Edit 2: actually, not a spac, direct listing as a public benefit corporation. They seem to have a very messy and complicated history with a lot of over promises and no delivery

3 comments

It's the "Duke Nukem Forever" of EVs. Or maybe Star Citizen is a better comparison. I don't think it's a total scam, but the rest of the industry has advanced a lot since the initial hype, making a lot of the specs not so novel. And it's susceptible to the Fisker problem, where a manufacturer goes out of business, putting the people who did buy their cars in a bad spot.

I don't think it is workable product. But 40 units sounds like something they could actually produce. Not that those will likely be more than curiosities and will likely have substantial number of teething issues.

It kinda has been to some degree. The first corporation went bankrupt in 2011. Hopefully they'll build/deliver some consumer vehicles this time.

There's also been plenty of vaporware from existing manufacturers, and the majority of what they've built have been more compliance vehicles than serious, no compromise, mass production EVs, so seeing that approach refreshing.

> The first corporation went bankrupt in 2011.

The VCs forced the founders out, tried to move production to china, then iirc banked on a sketchy deal where best buy was trying to get into the ev sales market out of tesla fomo (but a best buy is not where you find an aptera adopter)

I can see that. The founders shouldn't have gone to VCs then. Start low/limited runs and get cars on the road. If those work out, then try to get funding from sources that aren't going to screw you.

That seems to be what they're doing this time around.

I see that I missed years of drama!

the best buy insight is a bit insider, i used to be coworker with the fellow who was on the design team that led the best buy market research stint