Disturbing News About the Aptera Electric Car

[Tuckerfan]

If this piece is accurate, you can stick a fork in the Aptera electric car.

How did a woman who the Securities and Exchange Commission says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors?


It’s just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleaguered manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles (see the posts here, and here if you don’t know what’s going on).

It was an interesting looking design, but if half the information in the article is true, one that'll never see mass production.

[korjik]

Wow. Incompetence fest all around.

Rule 1: Someone who runs two companies into the ground isnt a good choice for CEO

Rule 2: Someone who gets an SEC investigation is not a good choice for CFO

How many more companies are these frauds going to run into the ground before people wake up?

[Daggerstab]

This reminds me of the story of the Grand Trunk company in Terry Pratchett's Going Postal...

[novaderrik]

Wow. Incompetence fest all around.

Rule 1: Someone who runs two companies into the ground isnt a good choice for CEO

Rule 2: Someone who gets an SEC investigation is not a good choice for CFO

How many more companies are these frauds going to run into the ground before people wake up?

those are the only types of people that get to be CEO's of successful companies- but the truly successful CEO's are the ones that can get out with their multi million dollar severance packages right before he company implodes after being very successful for a short period of time..
as for the "car" in question- i can sum it up in a single 3 letter word:
meh

[dgavin]

this does not suprise me at all, although i was one of those lookig to purchase an Aptera, it;s obviously not going to happen

CEO, CFO's like these two need to be held accountable for thier actions somehow. And where the heck is the founder in all this, he has the largest investment in it so should be firing these poor exec's instead of pandering to them.

[mugaliens]

If this piece is accurate, you can stick a fork in the Aptera electric car.

How did a woman who the Securities and Exchange Commission says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors?

It’s just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleaguered manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles (see the posts here, and here if you don’t know what’s going on).

It was an interesting looking design, but if half the information in the article is true, one that'll never see mass production.

Congratulations! You win the logical fallacy of the week award! In this category: Guilt by Association.

Also known as the "Bad Company Fallacy," this is a type of Red Herring, an information fallcy which attempts to discredit an idea (or in this case, a company) based on disfavored people or groups associated with it.

However, people are so gullible to this logical fallacy, companies go out of their way to disassociate themselves from anyone, or anything, of such negative press. Entire companies have folded due to such negative press swallowed hook, line, and sinker but an otherwise uninformed public.

Legally, you've opened yourself up, rather wide, to libel/defamation and failure of "due diligence," which, "in civil litigation is the effort made by an ordinarily prudent or reasonable party to avoid harm to another party," and is often ruled as "negligence," should any harm arise from your accusations, or even merely passing on the accusations of others with any endorsement of their point of view whatsoever. - Source

Meanwhile, the Aptera 2e remains one of the few leading, highly innovative concepts to actually hit the road in more than a single concept car.

We'll see how they weather the economic slump. It gets 5x the milage of my Sport Trac. Since the prices are roughly the same, at $2.50 a gallon, here are the fuel costs for running each:

2.5
FES Aptera
miles \ mpg 20 100
10 1 0
100 13 3
1,000 125 25
10,000 1,250 250
100,000 12,500 2,500

As you can see, by 100,000 miles, the Aptera has saved half it's cost in fuel. By 200,000 miles, you can afford to buy another Aptera, for free, with the fuel you just saved.

Is that worth giving up the ability to do off-roading, carry 4 people for 400 miles in comfort, haul small loads in the mini-bed, or pull a 4,500 lb trailer?

Well, that's up to the driver. As for me, I'm keeping my Sport Trac because it's paid for. If I'm ever able to afford a second car, however, I may very well purchase an Aptera for both any commute, as well as visiting friends in far places. Just makes too much sense not to.

[Drunk Vegan]

This is unfortunately quite common.. as a wise man once said (W.C. Fields?):

In a hierarchy an employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Heck, there's at least one politician I'm aware of who become president, despite running every company he was ever involved with straight into the ground. It's not as much of a handicap as I would have imagined.

[01101001]

[...] as a wise man once said (W.C. Fields?):

In a hierarchy an employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Wikipedia: Peter Principle

The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded" by Peter.

[mike alexander]

Also known as the "Bad Company Fallacy," this is a type of Red Herring, an information fallcy which attempts to discredit an idea (or in this case, a company) based on disfavored people or groups associated with it.

Reminds me of problems the Catholic Church has had. Also, anthropogenic global warming.

[loglo]

Reminds me of MG Rover all over again.

[Ivan Viehoff]

And the Africar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africar
And De Lorean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_Motor_Company

Because of the irrational fondness politicians have for automobile manufacturing, it occasionally attracts into it people who think that making a profit is optional.