Wouter Remmerie, CEO and Founder of AirShaper, talks about Aptera 

How amazing to have the CEO of AirShaper be so willing to interview and share directly with us! Great idea to reach out to him Steve, it was soooo worth it!!

Wouter does a great job explaining many technical aspects in ways that non-engineers can easily understand. Excellent and accurate information… I’m glad he was able to do this interview. So much better content than what is typically found on RU-vid regarding aerodynamics. Great job as usual Steve, asking questions that fellow Aptera enthusiasts might have. I’m impressed by the value and service Air Shaper has provided to Aptera. Good, usable guidance that usually comes at greater expense. Thank you.

This is the reason we always watch your presentations Steve. Thanks

Thank you, Wouter, for sharing your expert knowledge with us!

That was incredibly informative and kudos to Aptera for working with such companies and people.

Wouter's explanations and illustrations are exceptional. Steve, this is one of the best interviews you've done. Thanks!

HOLY COW!!!! That was your BEST video yet Steve!! Love love loved it. What an education in aerodynamics!! Good to hear that Aptera’s wind tunnel test met expectations. Aptera was soooo fortunate and smart to have their software available to help optimize their design. Once again I have EVEN MORE confidence that Aptera is the most revolutionary mass production vehicle design in last 100 years, especially after seeing this. It was sooo so nice of him to do this interview and give such detailed and well explained details of their work. As an amateur armchair aerodynamicist involving molded high performance RC sailplanes this was totally fascinating stuff! Most don’t realize, but I believe Aptera is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the competition. When I rode in gamma last summer I was very impressed with just HOW quiet it was inside with both windows rolled down, total lack of any wind noise, rolled the windows up, only difference was reduction of ambient outside noises like traffic and birds. I’ve never ever ever experienced ANYTHING like this in ANY car, it spoke volumes to me about Aptera’s insane aerodynamics. Thanks for the great interview Steve!!

Wow! I had no idea how complex the aerodynamics could get. It’s amazing how they can parse out each part of the car for independent analysis. Even studying the radiator internally.

He is so kind! Awesome info. I love hearing the actual experts vs the speculation. Thanks for the interview.

I actually met the guy at fully charged Amsterdam wearing an Aptera shirt. Very knowledgeable and interesting guy. I can remember already back in the apterforum days members were trying to measure CdA figures based on pictures. Very cool to see him on the channel.

The bonding of the BinC will take care of the squeaks.

Great interview Steve!! When I hear about the great partners Aptera has collaborated with like Air Shapers, CPC, Roush & Elaphe it gives confidence Aptera will succeed!!

Great interview! Definitely an increase in feeling that Aptera is going to come through with a cd very close to 0.13. It is great to have tools like AirShaper that really reduce the cost and time to optimize a vehicle for your goals. Hopefully a few large investors will come through that will have terms agreeable to Chris and Steve. For every day that goes by, we are at least 9 months out before we start seeing actual volume production builds going to customers. I'm looking forward to driving my Aptera. I remember back in the 90s when Pontiac was making a big deal about the Firebird's "clean" drag coefficient of 0.32 though the 82 Firebird was rated at 0.29 with standard (non-performance) tires. We have come a very long ways from from those vehicles. Of course, looking back there isn't much that was clean about the Firebird/Camaro with their horribly inefficient engines. The best consistent average mpg I could get on my 94 Firebird was 30 mpg and most of that was highway driving. I can't wait to drive something that gets the equivalent of 350 mpg and is considerably quicker than my Firebird though I know if I "step on it" that the drain on the battery will be just like stepping on it with the Firebird that got < 9 mpg.

Tech talk by engineers is so satisfying to listen to. Very kind of him to explain his work. I would pronounce Wouters like in the word „wow“ actually …. Wowters. On my way to the EU Aptera meet-up in Fulda.

Fascinating and informative interview! Thanks Steve for thoughtful questions!👍

Aptera is working with the right companies.

This is one of my favorite AOC videos. I am an aviation enthusiast with some focus on aerodynamics and this interview directly feeds my geekiness. If only he could have shared some more information about the Aptera... but I understand why he/they can't (yet). Thanks for this and all of your work on this channel.

Thank you both for this very informative video I only have three words to say wow wow and wow!

Very interesting! Thank you :-)

So much great information! Thanks Wouter, Steve. Sharing now...

Great interview! Thanks

Excellent video.

Thank you Steve and Wouter ! When I first met Aptera we were at 0.15 Cd… nice to see this improvement given the need for mirrors to launch. Thanks for the granularity on the Air Shaper work. Well done ALL to where we are ! ( Oh Antwerp!… Stayed there many times as it was a good central location/ beautiful city …a little ride to our plant Heist-op-den- berg) Memories!

Absolutely fascinating. Great interview Steve. So much technical information that is explained in a way we can understand.

Thanks for another great interview.

Excellent video!

Did the analysis of the Aptera vehicle account for surface 'smoothness', e.g. dappling, wrap surface type, bug guts, etc.

Incredibly cool stuff

Ok, you just blew my mind! I had no idea how complicated drag was, how many factors need to be considered.

Great stuff - you have an interesting channel. I feel I learned a lot from your channel - now I need to understand what I learned.

Thanks Steve for this intraction. AirShaper is a very important effort in the thought process of Aptera. Had a question for Wouter, What is the component wise process to prove the calculated results of AirShaper in physical world?

You can tell that guy knows his stuff simply by how fast the all the questions were answered. Aptera's money is most certainly well spent with AirShaper.

Wow, very enlightening, interesting and thanks for sharing!

I think patreons should write questions for him and do q&a part 2 ❤

I wonder if Wouter also calculated the influence of different wheel designs, for instance disc wheels instead of the spoked wheels, that are shown in all the Aptera videos. Like track bicycles have closed disc wheels for less drag.

very, VERY interesting. Since I reserved an off-roader version of Aptera, I am curious how much drag it adds to Aptera. ps: the main reason why i ordered an off roader version is because I live in Canada and I felt that our Winters will not that merciful with low wheel pants.

Thanks for bringing us this very detailed and extensive insight into simulation of vehicle design to optimize aero efficiency. In the 50+ years I have been participating in vehicle (Motor vehicle and space systems) design we have migrated from a purely manual process to virtual models. Kudos to Aptera for electing to adopt this approach to insure Aptera is the most efficient design in the production vehicle world, including ICE and EV. Great questions as well. Only AOC brings this level of insight and analysis.

Very interesting. I had wondered as you did what drag coefficient was about. Now I feel I understand it a bit.

Incredible software and visual interface! Oh, if all my profs in school had been the calibre of Wouter (and I had some good ones!)... knowledge, ability to explain, friendliness. It would be interesting to see his visual analysis (like he did with the generic race car) for a typical production vehicle (e.g., a Tesla or a Prius or (gasp) a pickup truck or SUV).

Really cool talk thru. Engineers are the best🎉

Great video. Well done!

Flippin' awesome.

I have a couple questions. How much influence does the actual surface of something have in the airflow? Is a shiny wrap more slippery than a matte wrap? What is the effect of taking off the outside mirrors?

Very smart guy !

One thing I am curious about was textured surfaces like golf ball dimples and shark skin. I believe I heard that is why golf balls are dimpled...to reduce wind drag. Any info on that?

Very interesting and educational. I wonder if their program can be applied with different mediums (eg. submarine design in water?).

I'd love to know if he has reserved an Aptera!

Very cool interview

i was wondering if the wheel covers can be quickly taken off and put back on incase they need to be removed for like a rough road or recovery? i think it would add to the versatility of the vehicle, efficient on the freeway but won't be damaged on the camp roads.

It would have been good to simulate the body lift kit. There is speculation about how much of a hit lifting the body will make. Lifting the body 50-100 mm in airshaper would probably be a lot easier than a real world test.

Wonderful technology. Thanks for bringing it to us. I continue to wonder about "off road". Raising the body and the lower edge of the front wheel pants will have an effect, but how much? Way less than just removing the wheel pants, but how much?

Wouter: Can I share something with you? Steve: Yes! Steve: There should be a button at the bottom of your screen Me: hah! (must be RU-vid automation that inserts at a black screen because it happened twice. I have heard that syndicated television operates the same way)

I wonder how much running 100 cores for three hours costs.

Interesting that air shaper is not allowed to release the cd value they got for aptera, I think we can assume if it was better than what aptera is claiming we would have been allowed to know about it. Hence I have to assume it predicted a higher drag than o.13, once again aptera not being open about data.

Nice to see some of my ideas validated with air shaper adjoint optimization technology. Well done interview.

The new front end design will effect the cd, the cv axles are new and will increase the drag, since aptera claims a f150 wing mirror has same drag as aptera, you can imagine these new axles not accounted for will increase drag. So the 0.13 claimed will need to account of the new design, also any inlets/outlets for radiator will also increase drag. Also it seemed the wind tunnel test was a photo-op, why did they not release any data from that.......I suspect it didn't support their 0.13cd claim is the reason why. That is if they even did any testing apart from take some photos. You have to ask what was the point of wind tunnel visit, if no results were ever divulged?

Looking at the impact of removing the wheel pants i took his estimate of 50% more drag force. This translates to a Cd of .2 and an overall increase in energy use at 55 mph of 29 wh/m (96 to 125 in my model). At most speeds the impact seems to be a 25-30% reduction of range which is definitely bad but given the impressive range of aptera could still be viable for offroad conditions. More importantly it isn't legal to drive without wheel covers in most jurisdictions on public roads.

Aptera should move to Europe ! Aptera (partly) & CPC: Italy, AirShaper: Belgium, Elaphe: Slovenia ... I'd suggest Nice (France) . . cause Nice is nice ! ;-)

kinda offtopic, but imagine the world was run by engineers liek him. The things we could achieve. Instead we have wannabe philosophers with the power to change the world, but they're motivated by their own interest

1st

Good insight into Aptera's aero design goals - *Low Drag* above ALL! And virtually NOTHING about directional control when hit by intermittent short-duration LATERAL GUSTS. The Aptera will be safe only to drive around the block.

Aptera = transparent 🤔 But does not want to show their air shaper results But does not want to show wind tunnel results We just have to take their words for true