Size and seating
From Apterawiki
The size of the Aptera Typ-1 has long been a contentuous issue on the Aptera Forum, as Aptera has not released specs. The debate revolves around the size of the Mk-1, which, to begin with, isn't necessarily going to be the size of the production model. That said, it's all we have to go on now, so it's what we'll use.
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[edit] Width
Herein lies most of the concern and most of the conflict. For stability, the Aptera uses a wide front wheelbase, wider than in a normal car. This allows it to be more elevated off of the ground, and thus less subject to the drag from ground turbulence. It also has the potential to pose problems while parking, however.
Many attempts to assess these dimensions were made. Early on, most were quite crude, relying on estimating how tall a person or object in a picture was, and most people assumed somewhere around eight feet. One photo, however, caught the eye of an astute observer. Here we finally had the Aptera on flat ground, sitting on the Hollywood Walk of Fame tiles. Another person went over and directly measured the tiles, finding them to be precisely 36 inches to a side. This led to some new estimates of the width of the Aptera as being around seven feet, measuring along the level ground. Several months later, other posters started making new estimates from the same or other photos, coming in at 7 1/2 to 8 feet. However, these were plagued with numerous problems, with measurements being distorted heavily by perspective (any measurement above the ground will serve to make the Aptera wider) uneven ground, and guesses as to the width of elements in the picture that are unlikely to be very accurate (such as hand-painted parking space lines).
To help resolve this conflict, a new picture was created, using the stitching tool Hugin to do perspective correction. Red lines from the original estimates using this picture that had been carefully drawn from the center of each tire to the other were retained, and vertical and horizontal control lines were placed along the tile grid. The warping for the scene was then optimized and the picture stitched. This threw everything not in the plane of the ground way out of perspective, but completely eliminated the effect of perspective on the ground, leaving a red line that could be measured in comparison to the 36" inch tiles. The result was 77" from tire center to tire center. The treads of the tires were known to be five inches wide. The width of the sidewall while loaded was thought to be half an inch on either side, the spacing between the sidewall and the fairing was assessed to be 1/2 inch from the videos, and another 1 1/2 inches was allowed for the remainder of the fairing itself. This led to an assessed width of 7'3".
Another poster pointed out the precise width of the sidewalls. This led to a revised estimates of 7'4" to 7'5". A few other posters who had initially posited wider widths continued asserting these widths, but offered little in defense of them. One claim was made that perhaps the center of the tires was misplaced. This was countered with the posting of the method for measuring the center of the tires.
Needless to say, this is a point of contention, but the most reliable estimates, based on automated perspective adjusting of an image of the Aptera on flat ground sitting atop directly-measured tiles, seem to be 7'4" and 7'5", respectively. For the rest of this, we will assume a width of 7'4.5"
[edit] Other dimensions: The "Twelve33" technique
Poster "Twelve33" established a technique for getting approximate measures of the other dimensions, given the wheelbase, using overhead and side shots. It has not been perspective-corrected yet, so should not be seen as very definitive, but should give an approximation. Applying the technique to a width of 7'4.5", you get a wheelbase of 9 1/2 feet, a length a little over 14 feet, and a height of about 4 1/2 feet.
[edit] How that compares
By all standards, the Mk-1 prototype of the Typ-1 is not a small car. The maximum width of a semi is 8'6". A typical RV is around 8', while a Hummer H1 is around 7'5". Parking spaces vary in size. Small spaces are typically around 7 1/2 to 8 feet, while a large space may be as much as 10' wide. Lanes of traffic are usually 12' wide.
[edit] Doors
The Typ-1 uses "butterfly"/"scarab" doors. By opening up and out, they reduce the area that the door swings through to similar to that of the width of its front wheelpods. By contrast, typical car doors open outwards, adding significant width and increasing their needs in a parking space. For just the driver's door to be able to fully open, the space needs range from 8 2/3 feet for a 1996 Saturn SW2 to 10 1/3 feet for a 1996 GMC 3-ton.
