Aptera founder: I’m here to stay
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Straight from the horse’s mouth: Aptera Motors may have a new head honcho, but its no-longer-in-charge founder, Steve Fambro, isn’t going anywhere.
Yesterday, we looked into the electric carmaker’s hiring of a new man to take the CEO and president spot and the move by Fambro, an Aptera co-founder, to the chief technical officer spot. To our eyes, it bore a striking resemblance to personnel moves at Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars as the companies grew in size and capital — moves that ultimately led to the ouster of their founders, Martin Eberhard and Daniel Riegert.
But today Fambro assured us that any similarities are purely coincidental. According to Fambro, the day-to-day running of a company that has about 50 employees and is growing fast was never in his plans. In March, he hired a headhunter, Heidrick & Struggles, to conduct the CEO search, during which time ‘I had top executives of top car companies in my office interviewing for the position.’ (Fambro won’t name names.)
He assures us that he will remain on the board, and that if new CEO Paul Wilbur attempts to change the game plan too radically, ‘the board will fire him in a second.’ Fambro is not the chairman of the board and, though he owns a sizable share in the company, he said he is not the largest stakeholder.
Like Tesla and Phoenix before it, Aptera raised a significant amount of money before the leadership change — nearly $30 million — provoking speculation that outside financial interests might begin exercising a different vision for the company than perhaps was envisioned by Fambro when he and co-founder Chris Anthony started the business.
When Eberhard stepped aside at Tesla, the company sought to assure the public that all was well and even issued a press release to that effect. Nonetheless, four months later, Eberhard was no longer working for the company.
As for Aptera, Fambro assures us that this won’t be the case. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, good news. Fambro says that delivery of the first production model of the Carlsbad company’s under-$30,000, all-electric, 120-mile range, three-wheeled car, the Typ-1, will be before year’s end. Who the lucky buyer is, however, remains a secret — except that he or she lives in California.
—Ken Bensinger