Pros
I followed Aptera Motors with great passion and excitement the first time around due to their efficiency first ethos in vehicle design, so having the opportunity to come to Aptera and lead their solar team from R&D through production was something of a dream come true. Unfortunately, due to my rapid unscheduled departure from Aptera, a void was left that led to many rumors to spread regarding my views on Aptera— most of which seem to be negative. I’m writing this review to clarify my status and dispel these rumors surrounding my views and exit. As of today, Aptera is the last surviving SEV on the path to production. While many may criticize leadership for their choices, those choices must be credited with Aptera’s continued existence and financial viability. Additionally, I recognize that it’s much easier to criticize someone else’s decision than to make that decision yourself. From my position, I may not agree with some leadership decisions, but recognize I very well could make the same choices were I in the same position. I disagree with some of the choices of individuals who were laid off, but I also recognize that my information and context for those decisions is different from that of the executive team. In any case, I know that the leadership team’s proactive choices to implement layoffs are a big reason Aptera is still around today. Aptera has incredible leadership in finance, marketing, and production/supply chain— each of the respective members of management in these departments are proven in their field, humble, and care immensely about the company’s success. The entirety of my time at Aptera, I looked up to the team members currently holding these roles, and I believe they are also the root of much of Aptera’s success thus far. What happens at Aptera is not a matter of technical viability — it’s a matter of execution. The prototypes are real, the BINC is real, the solar is real. The engineering is feasible, though requiring significant competent support and validation post-funding to verify (as is publicly known). Additionally, the deal with CPC was absolutely game-changing for the company— the CPC team has many highly competent engineers, and their work will enable the possibility of higher volume composites manufacturing for the Aptera. Regarding my exit, I am looking to continuing to grow in my position, impact, and technical skillsets. I was fortunate enough to have built an amazing team and executed a full Research & Development to production cycle with the solar team. The individuals I worked with on solar were some of the most amazing individuals I have ever worked with, and I am so proud of the accomplishments the team had. I still stay in touch with many individuals from this team nearly every day. However, growth and technical learning opportunities for myself stagnated as production schedule slipped due to fundraising efforts and team members were lost to layoffs— I began to itch for technical engineering leadership under which I can continue to grow and a position in which I can continue to maximize my impact. Prior to initiating an employment search, I have spent my full focus on 6-8 hours daily of reviewing engineering fundamentals and content so I can continue to be a strong technical engineering leader in future engineering leadership roles. Aptera has some highly competent employees who brought in the first set of government funding via the CEC grant. I am optimistic and hopeful that the company will close the ATVM loan to complete engineering, validation, and start production. Aptera reaching production would be the completion of a dream I’ve had for almost 20 years.
Cons
I believe the biggest obstacle Aptera has, which is publicly known, is funding. The nature of the markets over the past year made the environment incredibly challenging to operate and progress in for nearly every individual in the company. Once funding comes in, significant work is absolutely left to reach production, but I am hopeful that at this point, the executive team makes technical engineering skills a TOP priority. Much engineering talent has been lost over the past several months (as is publicly known), and the team is starving for engineering members and leadership with both full product life cycle deployment skills and strong engineering fundamentals. If leadership is able to employ a hiring approach that screens for strong engineering leadership and engineers that will help complete & validate the vehicle design, this company I think could have a real shot. I genuinely and deeply hope Aptera is able to succeed.