Saturday, February 14, 2009

Future of Personal Transportation?

From the Aptera Newsletter


Oil is incredibly energy dense, we make plastics and fertilizer and lots of other things out of it, and most importantly, it gives us unlimited mobility. That's why humans protect it and even fight over it. But if our history is peppered with conflict over oil, and so many of the world's economies have an increasing demand for it, why are oil prices so low? Well, please don't forget how OPEC and foreign concerns can manipulate us because we're addicted to oil.

For a company like Aptera, it's easy to be distracted by current bargains at the gas pump, but, truth is, we're not worried. Many folks are mesmerized by low gas prices right now and are wondering if we need energy efficient vehicles at all. They reason, "Gas is back down to $1.75, I'll just drive my SUV and I don't need vehicles like Aptera." I believe there is a different, certain truth to our future with oil. It's sort of the elephant in the room, or the crazy aunt locked in the basement that no one wants to talk about: the world consumes as much oil as it can produce.

A major oilfield hasn't been discovered in 50 years, and all of the big ones are losing steam, so to speak. Simple supply and demand dictate that as time goes on -- our current anomalous economic conditions aside -- there will be less oil, there will be more consumers and the price will continue to rise. Additionally, the price swings will be much greater with smaller perturbations. Think about it, all of us saw $4 per gallon just over a year ago, but before the holidays it was $1.90 here in Carlsbad. Now it's $2.20. Do any of us honestly think it's going to stay there? C'mon, really?

Let's restate all of this a different way. Aptera is going to stay ahead of the energy curve. We fundamentally believe oil will become too expensive and too precious for us to burn off at the rate of one gallon for every 24 miles. This, however, is not a gloom and doom message. On the contrary, it's a message about opportunity. You see, Americans cherish their freedoms -- their freedom to move, the freedom of individual mobility.

While the old world will be getting around in big, boxy steel dinosaurs that tear and shred the air as they claw their way through, they will become as archaic as the dinosaurs themselves. In the new world, where efficiency is sought and praised, Aptera will be there to deliver mobility with safe, comfortable, desirable vehicles that are the most efficient in the world.


by Steve Fambro, Founder Aptera



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