330 MPG! Strange-looking Aptera Hybrid

Inside Line: 330 MPG! Aptera Hybrid Promises Amazing Mileage for Less Than $20,000:

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Accelerated Composites LLC, a small startup company here, said it is developing the Aptera, a two-seat hybrid passenger car delivering 330 mpg at a steady 65 miles per hour — at a price under $20,000.

The company said the car, which may be ready for production in two years, will have acceleration and handling similar to that of the Honda Insight hybrid. The first Aptera prototype may be ready by March.

The prototype under construction will be powered by a single-cylinder, 12-horsepower diesel engine and a 24-horsepower DC electric motor, and will have a continuously variable transmission. Power is delivered through a single rear wheel mounted on a composite swing arm. The car is expected to have an electronically limited top speed of 95 miles per hour and an estimated 0-to-60-mph acceleration of 11 seconds.

So that's, um, about 10 times what we normally hope to get? Okay. Let's summarise:

• orgasmic gas mileage: basically, you fill up your car after having it serviced.
• bizarre shape: Is this thing a car?!? It unfortunately looks like a toy my doggie passed on his morning walk.
  
• composite body: hit anything, and the whole thing shatters into a million sharp little shards of plastic-like stuff.
• slow acceleration: get used to the sound of people honking on the on-ramp, unless you live where I do, and people can't seem to understand that merging involves motion.

I'd still get one, if I had the money and it could definitely get my mass up this steep-ass curvy hill I have to drive. I'd especially consider one if I only got five times the gas mileage but they threw in a 4th wheel. Like my dog, I prefer my automobiles to have all four wheels.