Aptera Production Updates!
So, it has been a whirlwind for Atera the last couple of weeks. So, it’s official through their direct listing. They are now publicly traded. And as I suspected, it was going to be a pretty wild ride. In my last video about them, I clarified that while I do not do financial advice and I try my best not to really be a stock analyst on this channel. I understand that with Atera, it’s so new and there’s a lot of the public who are watching this who are investors. So, I warned everybody that right out the gate. I didn’t think it was going to perform that well because there’s been a bunch of stock that’s been locked up for several years from people that thought deliveries were going to start much sooner. So, from the beginning, I was like, “Yeah, I think there’s going to be a lot of people that cash out on day one.” But thanks to Steve from Atera owners club clarifying with Aterara staff and looking at the SEC website for which forms have to be filled out. We can confirm that the co-founders, you know, the CEOs haven’t been cashing out their stock, which a lot of people thought they were. And I’m happy to see that while it was an extremely volatile day one, you know, basically started out around $23 a share, dropped down to $3 a share, and then bounced back to around 10 bucks a share. And now it’s slowly stabilizing that it appears the stock is high enough to actually take advantage of that ELOC deal they signed with New Circle Capital. That was kind of the big $75 million elephant in the room that we talked about in my last APA video. Etera has now announced that that deal is in effect officially, so they can actually start pulling from that. I don’t know if they’re actually going to publicly disclose how much they’re raising or diluting, but I did see the stock drop a little bit after that announcement. And so that could have been them or it could have just been the market reacting somewhat negatively to the news that like yes, delution is coming, but I think that’s probably their best course of action right now because we’ve all discovered that there’s not going to be some big whale investor that shows up and pays for everything. But I’m glad to see Atera updates actually coming back. They’re providing images and progress on how the assembly line is finally coming together for their first validation builds now, which is cool to see. Before we thought that CPC was going to do all of the assemblies for the body and carbons, which at low volume I think was fine for, you know, those early PI builds, but for high volume manufacturing, you know, you just cannot stack that many completed banks into shipping containers. So it looks like they’re actually onshoring production of those body and carbons to their Carl’sbad facility in San Diego, which means all of those necessary components for the banks that can now stack up really efficiently, load those up in shipping containers, and that likely drastically reduces a lot of the operating expenses required to get this vehicle into production. makes sense as a first step because they already have paid for the hard tooling in Italy for the body and carbon and they probably didn’t have to spend that much money to start bringing all of that validation equipment into their own factory in San Diego. So my guess is all of the money they’re going to raise from this ELOC program is going to be separate from onshoring that production. So my hope is they can still get some lowvolume deliveries by the end of next year. That would be really exciting. But what also can keep us entertained in the meantime is building some more complete validation vehicles that are the actual production weight and have the production grade arrow because that’s what we’re currently missing from the PI builds that were mostly handmade so far which is different now for these validation builds because they’re actually going with an assembly line approach instead of just building one at a time. Looks like according to the photos they’ve posted that they’ve got about 10 or 11 banks ready to be assembled and CPC training their staff on how to build them themselves. I would have to assume there’s probably some import, you know, tariff advantages to doing more of that inhouse. I also saw a terra posting updates from Costamp, their supplier for their chassis, is already shipping validation chassis to the Carl’sbad facility so that they can actually have probably around a dozen vehicles that are going to be the lowest possible weight but still have production grade battery packs, production bodies, and then we can finally get some hardcore data on efficiency, range, and miles added back per day, which I understand has been very optimistic on those numbers. ers and I hope they can hit them. But I just want to set the record straight. While I do talk about the stock performance on this channel, I do not own any Aptura stock. I just decided as someone who’s now working in the EV industry, I didn’t want to have that kind of skin in the game. So I don’t own stock in any EV brand, just to be clear. And I disclose all that just to say that even if Aura doesn’t quite hit their efficiency claims, because you know, it’s been a long time since they’ve made those promises. The EPA range efficiency testing has gotten more strict since 2020 when they initially relaunched. And I know a lot of the design has changed. They don’t have the hub motors anymore. They don’t have the belly pan cooling that they originally were expecting to have. All I’m saying is even if Atera was like 20 to 30% off of their efficiency claims, I would still be really pumped and excited because it would still by far be the most efficient vehicle you could buy. still undeniably be the only vehicle that could charge itself from sunlight for free everywhere it goes independent of what kind of housing you have, independent of where in the world it is. That is still mind-blowingly exciting to me. So, I just love the idea of efficiency for the sake of lowering electricity costs, being more grid independent. So, I haven’t heard anything, just to be clear. I don’t know anything you guys don’t know, but I would still be excited for an Aera that gets like 7 m per kilowatt hour because there’s nothing else on the market today that can really hit that. The closest we have is, you know, like the Model 3 or Lucid Air. And they’re getting like a little over five most of the time. They don’t hit six. So, if can hit seven, that’s a major accomplishment in my book. And yes, that would mean that they don’t necessarily get the 40 mi of range per day from their solar, but you know how much most EVs get from sunlight every day when they’re parked in the sun? Uh, precisely zero. They get zip. They get nothing. So, I would be perfectly happy with my Etera getting 20 m of range per day. Sure, it might mean I have to plug it in once a week or once every other week, but still, 20 miles of free range per day, that would still easily equate to over a 100 miles of free range per week, which means over 400 miles of range per month. That’s incredible. That’s still amazing and I would still love one and I would still drive it everywhere. I would use it all the time. So, I’m just trying to like mentally prepare myself because, you know, I understand the design has changed and sometimes when you go through the production process and when you change motors or heating and cooling systems or with EPA range testing changing, it might not hit the 10 m per kilowatt hour or 40 m of range per day that they’re hoping. But that’s okay. I still think they could get lower than that and still be record setting and still beat what’s on the market now. And I also have just kind of gotten tired with the brand association of Tesla that I wouldn’t mind just driving a different vehicle even if the range isn’t necessarily substantially better if it just means that when I go places and people ask me about my car, it isn’t immediately followed up with a discussion about Elon and politics and all of that brand association that I don’t really want anything a part of. What I love about the Atera is that it definitely inspires attention. like people come up to you and ask about it, but the answers of all of those questions usually results in some form of education. You end up telling people, “Well, this vehicle looks the way it does because it’s more aerodynamic. It’s more efficient. And yes, it can charge itself. So, you get more miles per day for free from sunlight when you make the vehicle as aerodynamic and as low weight as possible. And I would rather the follow-up conversations from me getting out of my car be about efficiency and being about free miles added back per day rather than now. I don’t agree with everything Elon says. I just drive the car. Just to be clear, I can’t tell you how many bumper stickers I see about Elon every single day now. Even though I love the car, just to be clear, Tesla’s got great software and great charging and everything, but I’m much more open to considering a nonTesla if the efficiency is there because I know the supercharger network is kind of the only option in many circumstances when you’re road tripping in the US. And when you’re in a non-Tesla, you have to pay more per kilowatt hour. But that’s the amazing thing about the Aterra. so insanely efficient that even when you’re paying a premium for those kilowatt hours, it’s still costing you less than it would cost a Tesla because it’s so dang efficient. So, I’ll continue to keep you guys updated with all of the assembly line progress that Atera makes. And I hope that they’re able to keep us updated with the real world numbers and range figures. 400 miles would be astoundingly good, but I’d also be perfectly happy with anything north of 300 to be honest with you, especially coming from a 40 kWh battery pack. basically smaller than any EV on the road right now and still getting like comparable EV range. That’s awesome. It’s lower weight, it’s lower maintenance, cheaper cost of ownership. That’s fantastic. Super excited for them. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on Appar. And thank you to everybody supporting this channel directly. Seriously, helps us out a ton, as does just watching these videos. So, thanks again. Have an excellent rest of your day. [Music]
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