Freethink headline: $26K solar car now has a factory — and will roll out this year
Subheadline: Aptera expects to begin delivering its self-powered car in 2022.
https://www.freethink.com/technology/aptera-solar-car
California startup Aptera has purchased a factory for its solar cars — and instead of rolling down an assembly line, the vehicles will be carried from station to station by autonomous robots.
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On the line: In 2022, Aptera announced that it would be relying on platform-like robots, built by equipment manufacturer RedViking, in its new factory to move its EVs from one station to another during the assembly process.
“These carts are really adaptable over time,” said CEO Chris Anthony. “It’s not the traditional automotive plant that has overhead gantries that you have to install that cost millions and millions of dollars and aren’t very flexible.”
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Brilliant!
This approach will make it easier to make changes to the manufacturing process in the future and also deal with any snags in production — if there’s a problem with a car, Aptera can just instruct a robot to move it out of the way for special attention.