The Aptera is a two-seat, three-wheel parallel hybrid car designed for production by Accelerated Composites. It is designed to achieve up to 330 MPG (0.71 L/100km) and is expected to sell for less than $20,000 USD. Image File history File links ApteraHybrid. ... Image File history File links ApteraHybrid. ... It has been suggested that Gas-electric hybrid engine be merged into this article or section. ...

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 drag coefficient (Cd or Cx) is a number that describes a characteristic amount of aerodynamic drag caused by fluid flow, used in the drag equation. ...

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. Composite materials (or composites for short) are engineered materials made from two or more constituent materials that remain separate and distinct on a macroscopic level while forming a single component. ...

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. The diesel engine is a type of internal combustion engine; more specifically, it is a compression ignition engine, in which the fuel is ignited by being suddenly exposed to the high temperature and pressure of a compressed gas, rather than by a separate source of ignition, such as a spark... This article is in need of attention. ... A supercapacitor or an ultracapacitor is an electrochemical capacitor that has an unusually large amount of energy storage capability relative to its size when compared to common capacitors. ... Regenerative braking is any technology which allows a vehicle to recapture and store part of the kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost to heat when braking. ...

A prototype is planned for April 2006, according to Accelerated Composites founder and CEO, Steve Fambro.

See also

• List of hybrid vehicles
• Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle

This is a list of hybrid vehicles in chronological order of production: // Early designs 1907 AL (French car) 1990s 1996 AC Propulsion tzero (primarily electric vehicle; 80 mile PbA, 300 mile Li-ion(2003) EV-mode) 1997 Toyota Prius (Known as the best hybrid car in the world. ... Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) is a conventionally powered or gas-electric hybrid vehicle designed to produce minimal air pollution, typically less than 10% of that of an equivalent ordinary vehicle. ...

External links

• Accelerated Composites web site
• Press Release how inertia in big automakers prevents hybrid production and switching to composites