Aptera solar EV makes up to 4.75 kWh a day, independent test shows

Aptera, the three-wheeled solar electric vehicle, just got its solar output checked by an outside lab. TÜV Rheinland, a German testing firm, spent three days at Aptera's California headquarters measuring the car's actual solar performance with its own instruments, rather than relying on the company's own figures.

The results: on a day when the car was simply parked in the sun and left alone, it generated 4.23 kWh, enough for about 42 miles of driving on sunlight alone. Repositioning the car once at midday pushed that to 4.4 kWh (44 miles), and tilting the rear hatch to angle more solar cells toward the sun got it to 4.75 kWh (47 miles). The parked-and-untouched number matters most, since it shows the car clears its 40-mile solar target without any effort from the driver.

The car pulls this off because it's built to use very little energy per mile, far less than a typical electric SUV, which is why solar panels can actually contribute meaningful range here when they've mostly been a novelty on other cars. For an average commuter driving around 30 miles a day, this could mean going weeks without plugging in. Aptera says it's aiming to build its first 40 production vehicles by the end of 2026, so this is still a car to watch rather than one you can buy today.