Aptera hybrid car
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There are two major contributing factors to its extraordinarily high mileage. The most important one is the Aptera's optimized aerodynamic form. Accelerated Composites claims that the drag coefficient of the vehicle will be approximately 0.06, which is dramatically less than any current production vehicle on the road. For comparison, most cars' lie between 0.25 and 0.4, whereas trucks' are typically around 0.6. Since aerodynamic drag increases as the square of speed, at highway speeds over half the engine's power is devoted to overcoming air resistance. The Aptera was designed to minimize this resistance without regard for aesthetics, resulting in a car that doesn't needlessly burn gasoline just to push air out of its way.
The other reason for the excellent mileage of this car is the lightweight composites used in its construction. It weighs only 850 pounds (386 kg), and thus will be one of the lightest cars on the market. Accelerated Composites’ Panelized Automated Composite Construction (PAC2) process is a proprietary method that fully automates the manufacture of the composites.
Accelerated Composites is planning for a 12 hp (9 kW) diesel engine with a 25 hp (19 kW) permanent magnet DC motor. The engine would be capable of shutting off when the car can run on the electric motor alone. The electric motor is coupled through a continuously variable transmission. The company plans to use ultracapacitors instead of batteries, as they are much more effective at regaining power from braking. It accelerates from 0–60 miles per hour in 11 seconds with a top speed of 95 MPH.
A prototype is planned for April 2006, according to Accelerated Composites founder and CEO, Steve Fambro.
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