The Exchanges

Q And, and just to be clear, you, you were just doing this as a tinkerer. This was, I mean, you had a full-time job at a biotech company, but, but you started to just like draw designs on Paper for fun?

A Yes. You know, I was, uh, my wife and I at the time, uh, we didn't have any children, and so this meant that, you know, Saturday mornings I could lay out my drawings on the living room floor, I could drink coffee all day, I could work in the garage, you know, without distraction, and it was just a hobby, and at some point I thought, you know, I'm probably not the only person that wants this. Um, I should I should think about how would I make this and sell it? You know, I have to have a business plan. So I, I worked with someone, I've never written a business plan. I was an entrepreneur. And so I kind of started from there.

AI assessment note: “Yes. You know, I was, uh, my wife and I at the time”

Q So how did, how did you finance building that prototype? Because you had a prototype within two years. I mean, by 2007, you had The first vehicle, where, how did you, uh, yeah, how did you finance it? Who, who, who supported you?

A Well, our first investor was, um, a business incubator in Pasadena called Idealab. And, uh, they were instrumental in, in getting us off the ground and, and connecting us with, uh, with ongoing funding. And we actually had the first prototype, I think within about six months of funding. And it was really just myself, Chris, and a young engineer, uh, And we were working, you know, 20 hour days. We were doing all the work ourself, you know, welding, you know, wiring and everything else. And it was just lots and lots of long hours. Um, and, uh, you know, that was just the only way to do it. Uh, and then the sort of production intent version, the Mark one, we launched, um, September 27th, I think it was, 2007. And on, on the day that we said we would, we, around January or so, we, uh, we told You know, our board and everyone else, this is when we're going to launch it, and it launched, it launched that day.

AI assessment note: “our first investor was, um, a business incubator in Pasadena called Idealab.”

Q commutes are, are under, like, 40 miles. So in theory, right, if you're just driving a couple miles to the office, maybe the grocery store and home, and you know, like, solar power alone could power the car. But what, what about parts of the country where it's not as sunny, or on days when it's not sunny at all, does the car store the solar power, the solar energy?

A Yes. It'll, it'll still charge. It might, it might only charge, you know, 10 miles worth or 12 miles worth or something like that if it's overcast or in a northern latitude, you know. Uh, and so the way to think about it is, you know, are you, are you plugging it in once every six months? Are you plugging it in once every month? You know, that, that's how it's going to impact people. It's, whether you get 30 miles a day, 40 miles a day, The launch vehicle is going to get around 400 miles range. Um, it's really just going to affect, are you plugging it in monthly or maybe every two weeks or something like that. So that, that's how that difference in daily solar charge is going to manifest.

AI assessment note: “Yes. It'll, it'll still charge. It might, it might only charge, you know, 10 miles”

Q All right, so you start talking to Chris, and, and you, and what, what did you have in mind at that, at that time in terms of what you wanted to do? You, you knew you wanted a vehicle that was more energy efficient, and were you thinking like a traditional car? Were you, what, what kind of designs were you thinking about?

A Well, once I, you know, once I saw what was possible, we said, well, let's, let's ask, uh, let's see what the, You know, like in engineering, oftentimes you'll set a term to zero. You won't know the answer, but you'll set a term in an equation to zero or infinity to kind of see what the equation does. And so I, I, you know, just sort of asked myself rhetorically, what is, what is a, what is a drag shape with, you know, a frontal area of X? And X is just basically two people sitting side by side. But with, with the coefficient of zero, what does that look like? And what does that shape look like? And once we determine what that was, uh, through our research, you know, we, we believe that with a diesel engine at the time, we could achieve over 300 miles per gallon. And so we just, we built the company around that, and we started fundraising and, and got our first investor. And, um, you know, it was off to the races.

AI assessment note: “what is a drag shape with, you know, a frontal area of X?”

Q Companies, including Fisker, which is coming back, right? It was sort of went away for a while and it's coming back. They're also, uh, they're also experimenting or will be experimenting with solar, um, hybrid. So I guess you call it a solar hybrid, like solar electric hybrid, maybe. Um, what kinds of leaps in solar technology have to happen for a car to be fully solar, uh, solar powered?

A If the solar is going to be meaningful, On the vehicle. If it's going to add a meaningful range, the vehicle is going to have to be aerodynamic, right? It can't just be a boxy flat sided vehicle. So if it's going to be aerodynamic, it means you're going to have curves in three D. So fundamentally you're going to be making three D curve panels. So that's number one. How do you bend those cells without cracking or micro cracking, which will lead to a crack and how do you do it repeatedly, um, and consistently, and then also make that panel very lightweight for an automotive application. And then Also make it affordable, and also make it able to stand up to hail and rocks. That's what's required to make it practical, and that's what we've been doing for the past two years.

AI assessment note: “How do you bend those cells without cracking or micro cracking”

Q want to start a car company and And I mean, you had a job and you, and this is kind of an ambitious thing to, I mean, it's not like just starting a, you know, a farmer's market stand. I mean, it requires a lot of capital and a lot of, you know, there's a lot, there's a long road to make that work. What, what, what was her reaction?

A I mean, it's very interesting. It's a, it's a, it's an interesting question and also situation for the reasons you just said. Um, I had every reason to stay there. I, I would, I would have been retired by now from the money I would have made on my stock options, uh, had, had I kept them and not liquidated to start Aptera. Uh, my friends at Illumina remind me of that often. Uh, but I, I remember once, once I saw that the only way I could do this was, was full-time, raise money full-time and build the company, and I went home and I told my wife, I said, I'm Honey, you know, I'm, she was like six months pregnant, by the way, our first child. Wow. I said, I want to quit Illumina and, um, and start a car company. And you know how some, you know, every woman, I think, uh, when they go through pregnancy, they have different experiences. Some have, you know, bouts of sickness or, you know, immense joy. And, uh, my wife was the latter. She was just whatever hormones were in her body because of that made her extremely happy. About everything. And so I remember I told her that I'm, I'm quitting to start a car company. She's kind of smiled and said, okay, hon, that's, that's great. I was like, what? Like, did she even hear what I just said? You know, I don't, maybe she didn't understand. Um, she's also an electrical engineer. And so she had an, an appreciation of, you know, the challenge a…

AI assessment note: “She's kind of smiled and said, okay, hon, that's, that's great.”

Q there. You've got the Rivians. You've got, um, a lot of, you know, A lot of companies, Hyundai are in, in the game now, in the electric car game. Um, who is this for? What is, I mean, what, who is this car going to appeal to? It's a different kind of vehicle. It's a two seater, and it's, uh, so what, what part of the market are you targeting?

A Well, Aptera is a brand and the Aptera is a product are going to appeal to people who want a kind of freedom, a freedom of mobility, a freedom to go and, and to, to move without being encumbered either by a charge cord or having to pay for electricity. Um, you know, that, that freedom from the old way of doing things is really what Aptera is about. There's, there's lots of electric car choices out there and lots of electrified cars, cars that are just Steel boxes with electric components shoved in them. That's, those are all great products for different customers and, and they'll sell lots of them, but that's not what we're about. We're about solar mobility and we're about giving that freedom to people. And the first vehicle that you, you see, of course, a two seater, uh, that's the tip of the sword, but there's, you know, there's a product portfolio and vehicles that are coming behind that, that are going to embody the same Ethos and double down and triple down on efficiency and solar. So, you know, expect to see a family of vehicles from Aptera where this is a first, but all of them are going to have the same promise of the kind of solar freedom and solar mobility.

AI assessment note: “appeal to people who want a kind of freedom, a freedom of mobility”