Comments by "N. Bruce Nelson" (@n.brucenelson5920) on "The Wall Street Journal" channel.

@aussieideasman8498 The design the Chinese purchased has very little to do with the present Aptera design that was only begun in 2019. The present one not only works but has exhilarating performance, both in straight line acceleration and in curves. It also handles speed bumps well. I know this because both my wife and I have ridden in the Luna prototype. You have seen video, Your claims that it doesn't work are more than baseless - they are delusional.
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@aussieideasman8498 First of all, anyone who has done due diligence knows that pre-IPO investments are very risky and if your hypothetical were to occur (It won't - for many reasons) there would be no return. This fact is true of any early stage investment and has nothing whatsoever to due with your "Ponzi scheme" buzz word. As far as the current valuation of Aptera as a company it is around $500 million, and continuing to increase at a good pace, which you would know if you did any research.
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@vic321344 What does "fully heat up" even mean? The windows will be treated to reject radiant heat and the rear window of the full solar models will be fully covered in solar cells. You don't even do the most basic research into the information available to you and everyone else.
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@vic321344 Aptera has a car charger that can in full sun in San Diego. You can look up the output of the cells that they are likely using and the area covered and calculate the numbers for yourself.
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@vic321344 How much do you know about the Tesla Cybertruck? Do you think that they have never measured anything either? You don't know what engineers do, obviously.
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@vic321344 Tesla has missed time after time on "promises". They took 6 years to do a simple EV conversion of the Lotus Elise, which they called the Roadster. The only reason they delivered then was that they got a 250 million dollar loan from the US Government - Which came after they had to lay off all their motor engineers. Of course launching one into space was a marketing stunt that delivered no value to the customers. Aptera has been much more careful with their resources, and are on track to beat the Cybertruck to market without a government bailout. As far as not any data goes, your quotes on the claims are scrambled, but there is a lot of data that would be available to you regarding Aptera performance from third parties, if you were to look. The world needs vehicles like Aptera and Tesla. At this point their offerings have very little competition with each other.
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@vic321344 Look at where the money Tesla used to pay back much of that loan came from. For years, Tesla's "profits" came from carbon credits that were given to Tesla by the government. Not that this was a bad thing, but Tesla was using government (our) money to pay back the loans. The world most certainly needs a more environmentally friendly option available to us than the resource intensive and wasteful Cybertruck, especially where the use cases for both vehicles overlap, such as commuting. The difference in tooling costs is over an order of magnitude! Aptera is probably not yet to 20,000 preorders quite yet, but will surely get there, since the numbers are continuing to increase rapidly. Based on Tesla's own experience we could expect that only around 35% or so of the preorders will turn into orders for either company. Aptera's will be at least 3 or four times more beneficial to the environment than Teslas per unit delivered.
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@vic321344 Why do you ignore the basic information available to you? The cost of a megapress is known, and can be compared to a 3d printed mold. Compare the weights of the respectiver vehicles. None of this is a mystery. And why overlook the point that carbon credits are handed out by the government? Whataboutism isn't a reply to my point that Tesla survived through government handouts that Aptera didn't get. You view everything with a very limited set of blinders that prevent you from seeing a complete set of facts, and causes you to miss the future. I would say that your world is the "phantasy". I have ridden in an Aptera prototype, and the performance I experienced was no 'Phantasy".
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@vic321344 Surely you know that using tooling that costs many times that of what Aptera is using has an impact on costs? You surely aren't as dumb as that1 Aptera has not been in business since they restarted for the time it took Tesla to do a simple EV conversion. You can come back to that point in a couple of years, and talk about comparative deliveries. As far as the Boss Hoss goes, if you have actually ridden one, you know it is a pig in anything other than a straight line. It was even worse than my 1942 Indian was and that is saying something. But why would you compare a drag machine with a vehicle designed for maximum economy? The fact that you even make the comparison says volumes.
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@vic321344 It was ready in 2009, and we know exactly why it was abandoned. Idealab hired a CEO from Detroit with automotive production experience to manage production. He didn't want to built the vehicle he was hired for and talked Google and other large investors into removing the founders from power and starting over with a more conventional design. He was unsuccessful in raising the funds to do get the new design done, and when that became clear, he liquidated the company. In those two years until liquidation, both the founders went on to do other very creative and successful projects. And my experience in Luna was both performance AND economy. I was watching the power demand on the display during the ride. You are making a habit of assuming untrue things. And you would be out of sight in my rear view mirror in 15 minutes at most if you tried to hang with me on my BMW in the Alps if you were on a BH502. That kind of ride is not what the BH502 was built for - no knock against you or your riding ability.- only your judgement.
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@vic321344 Like many companies, Aptera is committed to continuous development, but yes, the Aptera management at the time was ready to begin production in 2009.. They made the mistake of partnering with Idealab, and that decision led to them losing control. The new CEO was unable to fund his different vision of a product - or perhaps he just wanted to extinguish something he felt was a threat to Detroit. Since the current design is a brand new one with no common parts with the original product, They will not need 13 years (wherever that number comes from). This version of the company and product were begun in 2019. I am likely to be driving mine to this year.
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@vic321344 There is not a single part nor even a schematic portion of the drive train in common. The two vehicles aren't even close to the same size. There is not a single part in common between the two as I said. You are a poor observer. And if you try to name even one of those "many parts" you will not find a single one - even the tires are different.
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@vic321344 Aptera, unlike Tesla, answers emails, even when their staff sometimes stays up much of the night to do it. I don't think you have ever asked them. Besides they have already publicly stated that it is different and gone into detail about what many of those differences are. You are correct that they are not as far along as they were in 2009, because then they had a production ready prototype, and that is not yet the case for this design which is far more capable and ambitious than that one was..
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@vic321344 You were just complaining about Aptera not answering questions you never asked. I suggest your nonsense is even less relevant. Chinese companies? Next you will be praising Russian ones. It is amazing what can be done for a short time with slaves.
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@vic321344 You are the one who brought up China. Perhaps you willingly ignore the 3.8 million slaves reported there in 2018, the second highest of any country. The human condition is the most relevant issue to talk about, not the least.
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@vic321344 Again, you brought up the subject of China. As far as "illegal immigrants" in the US, as you know it does not affect their humanity. It is merely a legal fiction that politicians can and do change with the stroke of a pen, and like to keep an issue for their own purposes.
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@vic321344 Many of the ones I talk to already know it. You wouldn't be telling them anything new.
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Of course it will, and much further, depending on the speed you are willing to drive.
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Probably no worse than all the ICE vehicles stopped because they ran out of fuel. And unlike ICE, during the day they can gain range just sitting there.
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@steann1 ??? You don't seem to have thought about your comment before you sent it.
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@steann1 Few cues in print...This is why the /s tag was invented.
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@vic321344 Something most tropical countries have in abundance.
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John, the "electric tricycle" phrase has little practical meaning. It is designed with automotive safety features. The utility will provide every function of my present Gen 1 Honda Insight with greater ability and less running cost. If it walks like a duck....The full solar, which one does not have to purchase, will easily pay for itself even in Iowa, where I may get half the solar range I could expect in San Diego.
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@johndelong5574 Just as with a VW bug you could get a crew to lift it, but you aren't going to do it with two men even in the lightest version.
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@vic321344 Why give out false information? Aptera is designed to pass the full FMVSS Section 200 crash tests and will be tested to them before shipping begins.
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@vic321344 You are the one claiming false information. There are no published crash tests for the Tesla Cybertruck, either, and for the same reason. Can you not understand English, or are you just a troll?
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@vic321344 No one ever said that crash tests for Aptera are mandatory. What they have said is that it has been designed from the beginning to pass them and will be so tested before shipping begins. Here is a direct quote from the FAQ : We will not know Aptera's actual rating until we pass a production vehicle through the full safety test. The previous version had the highest roof crush strength of all passenger cars on the road, it performed exceedingly well in actual side and frontal crash tests. Aptera features a Formula One-inspired safety cell with advanced composites and metal structures for impact strength. Similar to aerospace and racing, these energy-absorbing methods are a core part of our safety strategy and have proven effective time and time again in high speed impacts. You clearly have a problem with comprehension/s
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@vic321344 "Seems"? You are clearly not an engineer. All manufacturers do this for beta vehicles now - it is probably an insurance requirement. Just look at video of early Lucid test mules, or Lordstown, or anyone else who is open enough to show such videos. We know the early Aptera passed actual roof crush strength tests. You try to spread FUD, but people recognize it for the manure it is.
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@vic321344 Any company that is serious carries insurance for their corporate activities. And the alpha prototypes are also driven on the public roads. Yes, I hope you are getting the message about your FUD.
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@vic321344 You clearly have no experience in business if you think companies don't carry insurance of this kind. Unlike what is obviously the case with you, I have worked at both the Ford and GM proving grounds and with several other EV companies, and they all carried insurance. You are just plain wrong about this. Why do you think the other EV companies such as Lucid also install roll cages on their vehicles? You offer nothing but FUD.
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@vic321344 LOL. Keep on destroying your cred and raising the profile of this channel in the process. You can't even spell, LOL.
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@vic321344 FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. And....you still can't spell.
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@vic321344 So, Im guessing you are not three years old. Why act like it?
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@vic321344 Du!
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@vic321344 I hate to tell you, but with a decade of English teaching experience, you would sound more literate if you wrote "We Americans" Just one more example of your sloppiness. with language and facts.
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@loodog555 I live in Iowa where my solar insolation is about half what one would expect in San Diego. I have done the calculations, and I am likely to average about double the 10 miles per day you are figuring.
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@vic321344 Many people know the ballpark times if you know the likely conditions, and Aptera has given us most of the information needed to calculate the needed power. It doesn't take too many assumptions to know that the numbers check out.
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@gj1234567899999 I have ridden in the Luna prototype. They are indeed real. They are intended for a niche market - not a million cars. Their tooling costs are at least an order of magnitude lower than what Tesla's are, for example.
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@gj1234567899999 If it were so easy we would see more "prototypes" with the performance of these. It is hard and every idea has to start somewhere. This first Aptera is intended from the beginning to be a niche vehicle. If, as seems likely, the small scale production is profitable, much larger potential market designs are waiting in the wings, and Aptera may not be the only company shifting to similar plans. Indeed, I think the founders and many of the investors hope they are not alone. The idea that a low thousands of numbers means nothing is false. I know this from working at other failed startups where the products and technology they developed ended up changing their industries. I think this particular company has even more promise they did, but of course I don't have the advantage of hindsight in the case of Aptera.
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@vic321344 Nothing wrong with that. It will still meet the needs of the thousands who have preordered it. I have over 400,000 miles of experience on motorcycles so I am all for them, but there are some things that the Aptera can match or exceed the performance of my present car that motorcycles can't do.
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