- California-based electric-vehicle startup Aptera shut down Friday.
- The company said it failed to find private investors willing to support its proposal to build a composite-bodied, battery-powered midsize sedan.
- Aptera shelved earlier plans to build the three-wheeled 2e electric vehicle.
CARLSBAD, California — California-based electric-vehicle startup Aptera shut down Friday, after failing to find private investors willing to support the company's proposal to build a composite-bodied, battery-powered midsize sedan.
The company, which shelved earlier plans to build the three-wheeled Aptera 2e electric vehicle, said in a statement that it was "out of resources."
Aptera said it had received a "conditional commitment" for a $150-million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the Camry-size electric sedan, but that it was unable to secure matching funds from private investors.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Aptera CEO Paul Wilbur said, "We were looking for a big dog to lead the way."
In the prepared statement released Friday, Wilbur said that when the three-wheeled Aptera 2e failed to interest potential investors, "we reprioritized our product plan to four-door sedans." He said the company had been negotiating to build the sedan in a shuttered General Motors plant in Moraine, Ohio.
He said the proposed electric sedan would be "priced at less than $30,000 and deliver more than a 190-mile-per-gallon equivalent."
In comparison, the compact Nissan Leaf is rated by the EPA at 99 mpg-e and is priced from $36,050.
Aptera's early investors included technology incubator Idealab; Google Inc., the venture-capital arm of the search-engine giant; and NRG Energy, a publicly traded power-generation company with major investments in such alternate energy sources as nuclear, wind and solar.
Inside Line says: Aptera is not likely to be the last electric-vehicle startup to go bust.
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shouldermonkey says:
06:59 AM, 12/06/2011
Unless you've got a comparative advantage in the market and/or government help to give you an advantage (i.e., Chinese car companies), it's hard for new car companies to make it in this saturated industry. At best, they can try to develop some innovations and expect to be bought out by larger, and more powerful companies.
speeddemon086 says:
08:21 PM, 12/05/2011
Its just so sad when companies run out of business. But it just shows that some things are ahead of our time. Or behind it.
george2040 says:
03:54 PM, 12/05/2011
Glad more of my taxes didn't go to Aptera. One would think that this would have failed even the most basic research into what consumers are willing to pay vs. what it costs to build. I'd love to have an electric car...for about $3000. Even if I steal electricity from someone else to charge it, an electric car just doesn't even offer the value and utility of a gasoline powered beater car.
marcos9 says:
03:15 PM, 12/05/2011
IMO, this thing represents a bona-fide threat to the status quo. So many businesses would want this (or anything like it in the past or future) to fail. Oh well, going back to drive my 7 mpg SUV half a mile to buy oranges imported from South America! Ta ta!
applecreeker says:
02:09 PM, 12/05/2011
Are you forgetting your first vehicle, the tricycle?
applecreeker says:
02:07 PM, 12/05/2011
miscpippa forgets the first 3 wheeler, your first- the tricycle!
applecreeker says:
02:06 PM, 12/05/2011
miscpippa forgot about tricycles!
miscpippa says:
01:29 PM, 12/05/2011
The only justifiable three-wheel vehicles are meter-maid scooters and airplanes.
wjtinatl says:
11:00 AM, 12/05/2011
Thankfully the US taxpayers dodged a 150 million dollar bullet being fired by the DoE. Amazing how private industry shakes out the winners and also-ran's.