New Law Makes Three-Wheel EVs Eligible for DOE Multi-Millions

(MoneyWatch)  You could call it the "Aptera provision." Start-up automakers such as Tesla and Fisker have recently taken home hundreds of millions of dollars each in low-interest federal loans, but Aptera (whose battery electric cars are just as green) wasn't eligible? Want to know why? The space-age Aptera 2e, which looks something like an airplane without wings and is even weirder looking in person than in photos, has only three wheels.

Federal rules said that "passenger vehicles" had four wheels, so Aptera and other small-volume three-wheel manufacturers were ineligible for federal money. But now that definition has been changed.

"This is largely a matter of leveling the playing field," said Marquis McCammon, Aptera's chief marketing officer. "We did not have access to Department of Energy loan funds before this, but now we do." This is not a tangential matter for EV companies. Fisker received $528 million in loan money to do final engineering work on the plug-in hybrid Karma (going into production late this year in Finland) and Tesla got $465 million for its forthcoming (in late 2011) Model S electric sedan.

Three-wheeled vehicles have some advantages, most notably that they can be licensed as motorcycles. That streamlines the process of getting them onto the market, and results in major manufacturer cost savings. They don't need crash testing, or (though most have them) airbags and seat belts. Aptera also claims that adding a fourth wheel would have also sacrificed 34 percent of its efficiency. Other EV companies that have gone with three wheels and will benefit from this include Elio Motors, Zap, Venture Vehicles and Meyers. "The law may look like it was written for us, but a number of other companies that make ultra-efficient vehicles with the capacity to get the equivalent of 75 mpg or better will benefit," McCammon said.

Aptera got its three-wheel provision through the useful expediency of a supportive hometown Congressman, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), who attached the measure to an energy and water appropriation. Aptera had applied for $75 million in low-interest loan funds last year, but was rejected December 31 because its three-wheelers did not meet the federal definition of a "passenger vehicle."

Vista, California-based Aptera emphasizes its made-in-U.S.A. status, and predicts it will "directly employ 1,500 people and create thousands of support roles for American workers from auto parts and components companies."

The 2e will sell for $25,000 to $40,000, the company says, and has a range of 100 miles on its composite-bodied car.

Aptera will now resubmit its DOE loan. The company has backed away from a late 2009 delivery date for the first 2e cars, and now sees 2010 as a more realistic goal. "We'd have to stretch to get some cars out in 2009, so there's some chance of that slipping. But we will be on the road in 2010.

The legal change will presumably also make the 2e eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit that, as Meyers put it, had previously only applied to "highway-speed plug-in vehicles that have four wheels--.The only people who can use it today are those buying $100,000+ electric sports car." That's the Tesla Roadster, if you hadn't guessed.

Jim Motavalli photo