Aptera Signs $44M Production Deal

On August 20, Aptera announced a $44 Million partnership with Launch Design to design and build their first solar electric vehicle. The deal seems like a win-win: Launch becomes an early investor in Aptera Aptera gains a partner with access to volume discounts and mass production facilities Launch is incentivized to help Aptera succeed thanks to its new ownership of Aptera stock warrants. The deal answers several questions that had been outstanding for the Aptera launch plans: How can Aptera build thousands of vehicles given that other startups like Lucid and Rivian have burned through millions of dollars to reach the same goal? Now they don't have to. Launch already has large facilities, and will ship finished sub-assemblies to Carlsbad for final assembly and validation. How can Aptera hope to manufacture thousands of vehicles out of their modest commercial building in Carlsbad? Now that Carlsbad will be an assembly point for large sub-assemblies, they no longer need long assembly lines or huge warehouses of individual components. How can Aptera keep the cost of goods low enough to meet their target price points? Launch is a large company with an international supply chain, able to negotiate lower prices than Aptera would be able to negotiate on their own, given their smaller size and volume.