The last time we caught up with Aptera was on the eve of the 2010 Automotive X Prize competition. Even then, while engineers showed us a car that looked nearly ready for production, rumors swirled about the company's health. Gloom-and-doom reports about Aptera returned this week, saying that the company has returned deposits to waiting customers. Is this a sign that Aptera is about to go belly up?

"Absolutely not," Aptera Chief Marketing Officer Marques McCammon responds. "We returned the deposits simply to streamline our administrative process."

According to McCammon, the company began accepting $500 deposits back in 2007. In the ensuing years, many of those potential customers moved or got a new credit card, and at each change, Aptera had to track them down and update their records. "It got to be time consuming," McCammon says.

Before the money was refunded, Aptera had 2400 deposits, and those customers will still keep their place in line when the 2E, the company's first model, rolls of the line. When production will begin is a trickier question to answer.

"Basically," McCammon said, "We're still in the process of obtaining a $180 million loan from the Department of Energy." In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which authorized the DOE to kick-start new technology companies with loans. There's $25 billion in the piggybank. Nissan was given more than a billion to retool its Tennessee factory to build the Leaf. Fisker automotive borrowed just over half a billion for its soon-to-be released series hybrid. What's holding up Aptera's application? McCammon wouldn't say, and only remarked that "It's a long process."

The company can't start production until the money arrives. In the meantime, McCammon says, Aptera survives with money from private investors and continues to develop the 2E. The company still plans to deliver its three-wheeled EV with at least a 100-mile range and a starting price around $30,000. There have been no layoffs at Aptera, nor any recent executive shake-ups—like those that typically occur when a company is about to go under.

But the delay must be frustrating. Even if the DOE money arrives tomorrow, the cars wouldn't hit showrooms for another 11 months. That's how long is needed to set up the production line and verify the process, McCammon says. At best, the cars won't be delivered until the end of 2012.

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