Rethinking Aptera's Battery Modules

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[IDNHANTUday]

Steve, keep posting your engineering thoughts. They are greatly appreciated.

Your speculations are for for thought. Without them you would be just another Aptera channel playing old stock videos while telling us what a great vehicle the Aptera is.

[babaluto]

Being on the holdout for the 60kwh, I like this thinking.

[luisvelasco]

Aptera seems to be planning to be a factory functioning as an assembly operation for components constructed elsewhere and supplied as modules. It certainly appears that scaling would be simpler using a 32s 13p form factor for battery modules, particularly with the larger packs.

[JBean_COCR]

Always good to understand more about the details of how EVs work, at least from my nerd point of view. Even speculation helps us understand how battery modules are engineered. Thanks Steve. Curiosity should be the opium of the masses...

[guyskeer]

Agree w/You, Steve! Battery Savings simplicity by making only One Module Architecture! Once Again, Thanks!

[ecdriver]

Well I'm excited things are ramping up.

[biffwilliams]

As of several months ago, Aptera was planning on putting battery modules in the fairly large structural center tunnel for the 600 and 1000 mile versions. These would be a different shape than the current modules. The modules behind the seat in the 1000 version would also likely be a different shape. The 250 is likely 4 of the same modules instead of 6, so I would suggest focusing on an arrangement that works for both of these. Although at this point I think Aptera is just focused on getting a 400 mile pack into production and not worrying too much about later packs. The Elaphe M700 motor runs on 300V AC, so the exact total battery pack voltage is important for high speed charging but doesn’t make much difference for acceleration since a properly designed inverter can handle a range of input voltages. Aptera is only talking about 50kW DC charging, so maximizing battery pack voltage is not so important there either.

[craigarnold]

I think it makes more sense as an architecture for building the needed ranges out of the same packs. I have concerns over Oops1e comments. I had wondered about the 30 amp cells in smaller applications of the vehicle. Though they would need more cells for equal energy stored there would be space. .

Also if the 66kWh battery fits under the feet and seat and you could stack two sets behind the seats? It may fit the new dimensions. Which should add 4-5 inches to the roof area behind the head and the rear suspension of the alpha. Also the lowering of the bottom could also add vertical space though I think it was mentioned to you that the floor of the back would be lowered. Hope your having fun at the show!

[matthewhuszarik]

I hope they include some kind of VTH ability it would be great for emergencies and camping.
It would make manufacturing sense to make the packs as interchangeable as possible. You want to minimize the number of different parts you need to produce and warehouse. No competent manufacturing engineer would do otherwise. It would make sense to use 5kw modules and use 5, 8, 12, or 20.

[david.e.h.]

Thank you for taking the time and getting out some great information about what aptera is or may be doing!!!

[IBMara]

Thanks Steve. Keep up the good work. You're fascination with Aptera is inspiring and shared by all of us.

[ronnw]

I think it all comes down to which one will burn the least amount of cash before production. Or maybe I should say which ever design is the most cash efficient. And I don't know the answer to that. We need a-lot of data, interpolation, and spread sheets to figure that out lol.

Im freaking pumped though. I cant wait to make Mustangs cry with my Jetson's Mobile lol. And not have to spend a dime in gas doing it :D

[scottschulte]

I think your speculation content is fine. You're probing for deeper understanding of the Aptera. There could be several reasons why we don't get this info from Aptera. It probably makes little if any difference to many would be buyers and maybe they still haven't decided on the final configuration. I'm soaking it all up and thanks for all the info.

[PeaceChanel]

Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste and Thank You for All your efforts to support this great cause 🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ 🌷 ☮ ❤

[ccibinel]

The problem with this is that you would need the "400 mile" and "600 mile" overperform to make these numbers make sense. It could be that is the solution since it does reduce the pack count substantially from my numbers based on 60 mph which needed 4/6/10/18 modules (which also had the 250 mile overperforming). My numbers used less pack overhead at scale with the assumption of reused BMS hardware but if the 1000 mile will need 5 BMS units then it will scale linearly and weight impact (and resulting "overperformance" of the mid range models) would be worse.

One problem with using the same cells across all models is that they the samsung 50g cells are very expensive and have peak power which would power limit the 250/400 mile versions. Essentially each module could put out ~15 kw (maybe 20kw for very brief periods but that is beyond spec); the AWD has 150 kw of motors. Some cheaper cells like the 40t have up to 30 amps of power rather than 9.7 amps of the 50g cells but are a less energy dense. Lishen has a 4500mah cell with 13.5 that balances discharge rate, cost and capacity fairly well.

[BertNielson]

I don't think you'd see that much in terms of BMS overhead. They're not that expensive to add to a battery system. If you add one into each of the packs, you end up increasing the safety margin of everything and they have BMS systems designed to parallel with each other to better balance the load.

It also thinks ahead to when you need to start replacing packs, they become individually manageable instead of having to completely replace everything all at once.

[hammertlme]

Another thing that may be getting rethought still is if the Sol, Luna, and Noir will be high gloss in the final production models. They've been getting portrayed that way recently and that's what I'm hoping for, though the Noir wouldn't have a 2 toned appearance if that's the case so may not look as cool.

[joshuarosen]

GM is integrating the BMS into the modules, would be a good idea if Aptera did the same. It makes it easier to scale the number of packs and down the road it makes it easier to change the cells because the modules would present a consistent interface to the car irregardless of the cell type.

[kathyfann]

I will be happy when batteries are improved lots of talk about that yet we are still waiting. Let’s face it we all love a coast to cost road trip to see the Beautiful Country for ourselves to enjoy the sights the Smells the atmosphere. So should I get one of these, it must allow me to explore and so maximize the range give software so I can plan a map to recharge and heat and air and a comfortable ride and I am in.

[iansmith]

Steve, you're such a good rep for Aptera, much better than the pimpled youth who seems like he's the vacation student.