In the electric auto industry there are three types of car companies: Those who bring a successful electric car to market, those who bring an unsuccessful electric car to market, and those who perpetually claim their ground-breaking electric car is “coming soon”.
California-based Aptera motors is one such company. But despite a history that contains more twists and turns than a Nepalese mountain pass, the small electric automaker is promising that it will soon have something exciting to share with the world.
That’s the message being sent out by Aptera officials after we enquired about a recent change to its company website, as well as an update on its all-electric car.
Gone is the old Aptera website filled with information about its three-wheeled electric motorcycle-cum-airplane-car. In its place, there’s an image file depicting what Aptera says is its new website design, proudly proclaiming that “Aptera 2.0 is Coming”.
Aptera's Old Website (Screenshot)
For reference, the image in question -- known as a template file -- looks like any regular website. Except none of the links on it work.
That’s because template files aren’t meant to be placed on public websites. Instead, they’re made by a graphics designer for web developers to use as a template to build a working site.
In other words, the image file is little more than the web-equivalent of a clay model.
But that shouldn’t worry you, says Aptera spokesperson Marques McCammon. In response to our concerned email about the website, McCammon told us everything at Aptera was hunky-dory:
“All is well in start-up world. Yes, there is something new coming to the web. I would call it a better reflection of how our business is developing. I can’t say much more than that at this point.”
We’d like to share Aptera’s optimism, but the past year news from Aptera hasn’t given us any indication that it will have a car to sell any time soon. Instead, Aptera has blamed the economics and lack of support in native California for being unable to build a factory in California, as well as suffering a huge number of withdrawn customer deposits.
Then, over the summer, Aptera halted its online reservation system, blaming its escrow bank before refunding all of its remaining Aptera 2e reservation holders.
Bearing that in mind, we asked McCammon how the refunds were going, and what the prospects were for the future of the company.
“The refunds are progressing on schedule”, wrote McCammon. “And overall our customers remain VERY supportive. We are fortunate to have such a strong base. As you can imagine, there is noone more eager to talk about Aptera than I am, but all things in their time."
But is time something that Aptera still has? Let us know in the Comments below.
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