Even “The Jetsons” would be charged up about the futuristic, all-electric vehicle that’s been cruising around Big Apple streets.
Pedestrians in the Financial District, SoHo, TriBeCa and other areas this week have been snapping cellphone pics of the three-wheeled Aptera 2e (pictured), a two-seater motorcycle that looks like a car, with doors that raise upward.
It looks like a sleek spaceship straight out of sci-fi.
“People ask us, ‘Does it fly? Does it float?’ ” said Marques McCammon, chief marketing officer of California-based Aptera Motors. “What we say is, ‘It flies by gas stations, because at the equivalent of 200 miles per gallon, it will cost you less than $2 to drive over 100 miles.”
The Aptera is scheduled to go on sale at first only in California during the fourth quarter of 2009 for $25,000 to $40,000, depending on power train and options.
By federal law, the Aptera 2e is classified as a motorcycle because it has three wheels, but it is “designed to function and operate like an automobile,” said McCammon, adding it “meets all federal requirements to be driven on highways or city streets.”
Buyers will have to register it as a motorcycle, but “you don’t need a helmet and you don’t need a motorcycle license,” said Aptera spokesman Jeff Green.
Aptera is Greek for “wingless flight.” The company Web site says engineers came up with a prototype vehicle “that follows nature and glides through the wind instead of pushing it.”
The focus on aerodynamics and efficiency explains the sleek shape and why it has only three wheels two in front and one in the rear.
The vehicle, which has a trunk, and safety airbags, weighs about 1,700 pounds, has a battery pack and you “plug it in like you would a hairdryer” he said.