Aptera has raised $3m of its $20-50m crowdfund goal, offers new swag to investors
Aptera’s new community funding program is just two weeks in, but it has raised $3 million of it’s $20-50 million goal. To incentivize further investment, the company is now offering new pieces of Aptera-branded swag to lead investors.
Aptera announced the funding milestone today, though it wasn’t really a secret, as it has had a constantly-updated investment leaderboard ever since its January 27 crowdfunding announcement.
In that announcement, Aptera indicated that it wanted to raise $20 to $50 million by the end of March. Aptera is hoping to attract 2,000 investors at $10,000 or more each, which would put it into this fundraising range.
So far, Aptera has raised $3.10 million from 257 investors, according to the leaderboard at press time.
So, if we assume that investments start fast and trail off, or that the rate of investment is relatively stable over the investment period, it looks like Aptera might be running a bit behind schedule, about a quarter of the way into its two-month investment period.
As a result, Aptera has offered a few new perks to investors, perhaps to speed things up a bit.
In addition to the previous perks of a 5% discount on an Aptera and waiving the $100 reservation fee (which anyone can save $30 on by using our link) for any investor over $10,000, Aptera has promised that everyone who invests over $10k between Jan 27 and March 26 will get a serialized, limited-edition hardcover book about the Aptera production and design process.
Beyond this tier, any investor over $15k in that timeframe will get a “branded Aptera adventure bag,” and investors over $25k will get the bag and a “branded Aptera Accelerator jacket.”
The 2,000 investors will gain access to the first 2,000 Launch Edition Aptera vehicles, roughly in order of their positions on the leaderboard. The #1 investor will get Aptera #1 – currently, that position goes to an investor from Maryland who goes by the initials R.P. They have invested $10,500 since Jan 27, but over $1 million since Aptera originally started taking investments.
Those Launch Edition cars will start at $33,200, with a configuration including the upgraded 400-mile battery, all available solar panels, and all-wheel drive system. Though that price is conspicuously labeled as “subject to change.”
Finally, Aptera promised additional swag incentives in the future, stating that it will add “more items and experiences to the list” as more investments roll in. It also alluded to a special prize for the top 10 investors but said we’ll “have to wait and find out.”
If you’d like to invest in Aptera, you can find more at their Investment Accelerator Program site.
Electrek’s Take
There’s a lot of discussion in the Electrek newsroom any time Aptera comes up. For longtime EV fans, Aptera has quite a history – it tried and failed to bring a car to market once before, though this second attempt seems more realistic than the first did.
The car does have a cool and different design and incredible efficiency. It perhaps could even deliver the promise of being able to drive and charge fully on solar power for low-mileage individuals or people living in very sunny places. This could make it easier for people who don’t have access to their own parking spot to stay charged up from day to day, for example. And while solar is usually more effective on the roofs of buildings or in other stationary applications, solar cars have been a dream for a long time.
It’s also somewhat reasonably priced, with a $25,900 base price (for the non-Launch Edition) – though that’s “subject to change,” as it’s the same price that Aptera originally announced in 2020, and most cars have gone up in price since then.
But one car that hasn’t gone up in price is the Chevy Bolt, which is a screaming deal right now at a base price of $26,500. That’s barely more than an Aptera, but you get a “real car” for that price. Of course, the people looking at an Aptera are probably the type of people who want something different anyway, so perhaps a “real car” isn’t what they want. But that pricing differential doesn’t seem to work in Aptera’s favor, especially when the Bolt will qualify for the federal EV tax credit, whereas the Aptera, as a three-wheeled vehicle, will not.
But then again, nothing can compete with the Bolt on price/performance right now, and it’s nearing the end of its product life. We’ll have to see what GM has in store with the Equinox, which is supposed to replace the Bolt at a somewhat similar price range, and see how the rest of the market develops in the next year or more before the Aptera hits the road.
So, while we remain optimistic that Aptera can make it, we also recognize it’s got a long way to go in a tough environment for startups as funding has dried up across the economy in recent months. As a result, solar EV startups have been having a rough time lately, with Lightyear recently declaring bankruptcy, and Sono running its own crowdfunding campaign. And another three-wheeled EV-maker, Arcimoto, is also in trouble.
So Aptera has its work cut out for it, but maybe offering a few more incentives will nudge some more investors into action.
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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