Meet Sol: Aptera's Three-Wheeled Solar-Powered EV in White

Aptera's three-wheeled solar-powered EV now comes in a pearly white color. Just months after it unveiled its Noir Solar Electric Vehicle (sEV), which comes in black, you now have the choice to buy Sol, its white counterpart. 

Sharing the news on the company's YouTube channel yesterday, May 20, Aptera's co-CEO Chris Anthony pointed out a few updates that Aptera's sEVs would see in their beta prototype stage, as well as giving a sneak peek at the flashy white Sol version.

To show Sol off in all its blazing glory, Aptera's team driver, Natalie Fenaroli, took it for a spin four days ago along Coast Highway 101, from Cardiff to La Jolla, in California. The point of driving along such a scenic route was to point out the motivation behind Aptera's sEVs: to preserve our future landscapes by using clean energy and vehicles. 

Sol is nearly identical to the company's first development vehicle, except that it has front-wheel drive, and it's a different color. It's also set to be the last alpha prototype of its kind.

So, if you want to get your hands on one of them now's the time. Otherwise, you can wait until the beta prototype with its new updates comes out. 

The upcoming beta vehicles will be slightly roomier, and have less aerodynamic drag, explained Anthony, offering just a teaser for what's yet to come. An upcoming webinar later this month will get into the nitty-gritty details, he said, so you can tune into that on the company's website if you're interested. 

Aptera's solar-powered vehicles

Solar-powered EVs are gathering speed in the bid to boost renewable and sustainable energy systems. A number of automakers are working on developing solar-powered vehicles, take, for instance, Hyundai's IONIQ 5 vehicle that has solar powers on its roof to power the vehicle.

So, it's easy to see why Aptera would jump on that bandwagon to create its own, sleek sEVs, and they're quite the catch. For example, Aptera's vehicles can go from 0 to 60 mph (0 - 96.5 km/h) in 3.5 seconds, and the top version has a range of 1,000 miles (1,609 km). Per day, that figure can be broken down to roughly 45 miles (72 km) thanks to its solar panel roof array. The vehicles charge while they're in park mode.

It all sounds pretty neat, and with more colors and variations coming onto the table, Aptera and other automakers' sEVs may one day truly gain traction.