Aptera Solar Aircraft Tractor @ Salt Lake City Airport?

[@DemaGeek]

Really cool that you scouted this out Raj. I hope this market opens up to Aptera and becomes a large and important part of their business!

[@tonydeveyra4611]

very cool application of Aptera tech. Between this and the polydrops collab. I think it would be very cool if Aptera developed a portable pop up solar canopy. Like those canopies people use at swap meets and farmers markets, but with their lightweight solar panels built into the canvas. That would be killer for car camping.

[@vic321344]

What Aptera tech?

[@rngalston]

Solar mobility!

[@sluggyyarvin]

The use of lead acid batteries for this vehicle probably makes sense, since it is much cheaper and weight isn't an issue here. The weight might actually be an asset for traction.

[@EndOfForever]

I'm guessing they chose lead acid batteries because they purposefully needed extra weight on the vehicle. Using lithium batteries might be "too" energy dense for what they need, and they might as well save some money by using lead acid.

[@mikegrok]

Also lead acid is good for high power. $100 consumer lead acid battery can output 900 amps at 12v. The white vehicle near the nose of the aircraft probably moves less than a mile a day, but each time it moves it is towing 150,000 pounds. It would cost about 15 times that to get a consumer lifelo4 battery that could accomplish that power output. Also if they are deep cycle and properly maintained they should last about as long as the lifepo4 batteries. Also, they need the weight, so they have to buy fewer iron plates as ballast to get sufficient traction.

[@RajGiandeep]

Good points from both of you I haven't thought about. Thank you.

[@tonydeveyra4611]

@@mikegrok but how would that lead acid battery compare to lifepo in below freezing temps? It can get very cold in SLC.

[@colinm.3419]

I was thinking that too, more weight for better traction/grip with the ground for moving massive airplanes around

[@kevinjensen9803]

These airport tugs need to generate enough force to move the considerable mass of a fully loaded airplane. That needed force must be transferred into the tarmac via the tug’s wheels, which requires a lot of traction. To achieve that much traction requires the tug to be rather heavy. This is in a way the diametrically opposite scenario that the Aptera has been designed for, but the same physics applies to all vehicles. Force = Mass X Acceleration.

[@g60dood]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@johnreeves7261]

FYI, "3000 to 4000" watts worth of Maxeon solar cells would require ~12 to ~16 square meters of solar cells. For reference, a "full solar" Aptera would have ~3 square meters.

[@glennzajic7318]

Thanks for the snooping around! I bet Flux Powers customer list could be of interest to Aptera. Hope that relationship can be tapped.

[@adimchionyenadum2962]

That was a good catch, Raj, even though they tried to dissuade you from your attempt on the Ambassadors Discord. I wish someone from Aptera can confirm that the thing you caught is theirs.

[@gr8dvd]

"dissuade" Raj from confirming it was an Aptera pilot program… under what possible rationale? Perhaps they were afraid if not Aptera, they fear the obvious… namely this lucrative market will have competition.

[@orlandoterrazas2179]

Thanks for the info Raj. I appreciate your detective skills to uncover some neat intel on Aptera's solar technology. It's comforting to know Aptera' has the ability to monetize their solar panels with airport equipment and trailers. They have created more opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint and developed other revenue streams with their innovative solar technology. I'm looking forward to driving on sunshine in 2025... Year of the Aptera!!

[@stevefambro189]

Can neither confirm nor deny...

[@skeptibleiyam1093]

Fambro-Glomar!

[@Carl_in_AZ]

I saw four EV driverless yard dogs at a major DC warehouse in Buckeye, Arizona. That might be another example of where solar panels could be used.

[@e-economy-]

Really cool footage. Do we actually have confirmation that this is Aptera technology? I am just wondering because their technology is particularly strong when bended, curved, etc.

[@gr8dvd]

Curved and (perhaps) better impact/hail resistance, and better electronics to respond Goog in & out of shadows. Dunno, asking… potential competitive advantages?

[@e-economy-]

@@gr8dvd I would assume so too. They once talked about having specific arrays and software to handle shade in / out particularly well. I am crossing my fingers that the test goes well and they are selling tons of they solar panels across the world.

[@Secretlyanothername]

This is cool. But it's not particularly complicated to wire up some high efficiency panels to a lead-acid battery system, so I'm not sure why they're so protective of the idea. Based on the total size of the vehicle, 3.5kW seems about the system size. Eventually all major equipment will be electrified, and diesel vehicles will be the exception.

[@RajGiandeep]

I think it's more the software to charge via solar more effectively

[@RajivPanjeet]

My honorary pajeet, welcome to the brother hood

[@GNiessen]

I would guess it would be less than 2000watts.

[@RHPDaddy]

I wonder if the side panels can be "deployed" to horizontal orientation when not driving it.

[@RajGiandeep]

Would make it more efficient. From what i could tell, seems mounted in a static position

[@vic321344]

Do these airport vehicles have anything to do with the Aptera motorcycles? These solar panels can be readily bought in China and installed by a local mechanic. To load the internal 24V lead starter batteries.

[@RajGiandeep]

Aptera has the technology to directly charge a traction battery from Solar.

[@vic321344]

@@RajGiandeep I have the technology to charge 24V batteries since 2000. Readily available. And these trucks only charge their 24V Starter batteries for the Diesel Engines.

[@billsmith5960]

@@RajGiandeep - They are not the the only ones. For the last few years I've seen solar on ground equipment in Europe. So, it's nothing new to charge the main batteries with solar. I don't know what Aptera brings to the table this late in the game. Maybe they should bring this public and then we'd get to see how their technology is much better than existing, as opposed to us guessing about it. Also, the company they mentioned that they were dealing with in ATL, also sells Flux Power Batteries. So, it shows that they (CA) are going after existing customers to try to sell their tech.