World’s first solar-powered electric car sells out in 24 hours

by womenonwheels

December 14, 2020

World's first solar-powered electric car sold out in 24 hours

The world’s first all-electric vehicle – that never needs to be charged – sold out within 24-hours of going on sale.

Paradigm is created by California-based startup, Aptera. The company describes the three-wheeled vehicle as “the world’s first Never Charge solar electric vehicle” and pre-orders have already sold out.

According to Aptera, the Paradigm cost around R390,824 [$26,000] and features a range of 1600 kilometres.

“Aptera’s Never Charge is built into every vehicle and is designed to harvest enough sunlight to travel over 11,000 miles per year in most regions,” the company says on its website.

To ensure the vehicles hit these figures, it features a uniquely shaped tear-drop design intended to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible to use as little energy as possible, according to reports from the Independent. 

Take a look at what buyers can expect from Paradigm below.

The solar panels covering the Paradigm are capable of absorbing enough energy for 64 kilometres of travel per-day, which may not sound like much at first, but Steve Fambro, co-founder of Aptero said it’s the equivariant of magically getting 7 litres of petrol overnight.

“Forty miles [64 kilometers] doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s the equivalent of parking your car and having it magically fill up with two gallons [ 7 liters] of gas overnight,” said Fambro. “So the fact that you can park it at work or wherever and go back to it with more energy in the tank than when you left it – have it charge itself without having to pay a dime to drive it every day,” he said in an interview with The Independent.

If 64 kilometres of free range simply won’t do it for you, the vehicles also feature a 110V outlet that allows manual charging which can be plugged into any standard wall socket, delivering and additional 240 kilometres of range overnight.

Only 330 of these futuristic, non-charge electric vehicles were made available, and the the first customers will receive their vehicles at the beginning of 2021.

 

Picture: Twitter/@aptera_motors