The (somewhat) solar-powered Aptera has completed its first road trip

The Aptera solar car - yep, that weirdly whale-shaped motor powered partially by the sun – has taken its first road trip.

The Aptera Hermes – which co-CEO Steve Fambro identifies as the carmaker’s track-testing vehicle – covered over 300 miles on ‘a single charge’ cruising Route 66, with a whole 20 of those precious miles coming from rays of that famous daytime star. Aptera says it wasn't an official range test, and that the solar tech peaked at 520Wh while in motion.

Before you throw shade (yes, 2.4kWh of sun juice is pretty modest) the Aptera team has done well to prove that there’s still enough power to be had to get you to the shops and back, even on days that are a wee bit cloudy. Rejoice! There’s hope for the UK yet.

There’s no getting away from the fact the two-seater car isn’t a conventional shape, and though that design will undoubtedly have aero smarts tucked up its slippery sleeves, how the technology will transfer to something more conventionally shaped is yet to be realised.

Still, Aptera’s data boffins have created a handy column graph to show that the car offers twice the efficiency of some other EVs currently on the market, posting a rate of 122Wh/mile. Or if you prefer your e-efficiency in a more conventional flavour, about 8.2 mi/kWh.

Anyway, the lower the Wh/mile number (i.e. the less energy it takes to get you one mile down the road) the better. In light of which, the Lucid Air manages almost 240Wh/mile, the Tesla Model 3 just over 250Wh/mile and the Ford F-150 Lightning sits at almost 500Wh/mile.

Goes a long way to proving size matters, huh? More as we get it.