The cool thing is that Aptera has shown off an actual production prototype of the 2e and it looks sweet.  This, of course, is my favorite electric car and the Aptera 2e production version looks like it will still be my fav.  The not-so-cool thing is that the company’s sketchy head honcho is being cagey about the financials of the company and how soon they’ll finally be going into production full-swing.

First, let’s look at the awesome (mostly) finalized Aptera 2e now.  These are from Aptera’s website, but you can see real-life photos at the car’s unveiling yesterday in California over at Autoblog. Note that the car they took pictures of is the Automotive X Prize entrant, now on its way to Detroit for the final competition goings-on.

You can see that most of the changes are cosmetic with the non-beautifications being made to conform to CEO Paul Wilbur considers to be “automotive musts.” I have no respect for him and would have preferred that the company’s founders be left in place to run the show.

They had a great car without all of Wilbur’s stupid suggestions and would have had it done already.

At any rate, Wilbur says the company is almost fully funded now.  Which means they aren’t fully funded, obviously, despite recent venture rounds and new partnerships with over a dozen companies in automotive supply chains, including big names like Pratt & Miller, A123 Systems, and GE.

It appears that the company is still hinging everything on that $184 million in Department of Energy money they put in for.  Since the DoE has recently been throwing money around like candy at a parade, Aptera might get some, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Because the company is so breathlessly hanging their entire future on the government handout showing up, I’m guessing that karma will deny it to them.

Sad, too, because the Aptera is such a bitchin car.

Related posts:

1. Aptera Finally Gives Up

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