Solar EV startup Aptera has announced a Senior Vice President of Engineering, donning quite the resume in electric mobility. Leon Kaunitz joins Aptera after leading engineering teams at Tesla, Ford, and NIO, with the goal of bringing the SoCal startup’s long-promised Aptera solar EV into mass production.
The Aptera news beat has been relatively quiet compared to the past few years. The startup itself recognized this in its latest email newsletter, explaining why fans of the solar EV developer have not seen the production-intent design being showcased around the US as promised:
We also want to acknowledge that our summer road trip has been delayed due to various factors outside our control. We appreciate your patience and continued support as we plan for public events in the coming weeks and months. Thanks to the incredible progress being made by our growing team, events beyond California are coming sooner than you might expect.
Aptera shared that it is hiring for several new positions at its HQ in Carlsbad, CA—a good sign for any startup. At the time of this post, Aptera had as many as 18 open positions in various departments. One position that has been filled, however, is the SVP of Engineering.
Aptera announced it has hired industry veteran Leon Kaunitz to help reach the long-sought mass production of its flagship vehicle. He brings nearly thirty years of experience, including almost fifteen years of EV engineering.
Aptera looks to Kaunitz to help reach SEV production
Kaunitz brings a wealth of industry and engineering experience to Aptera as it still fights onward toward solar EV production (someday). The new SVP of Engineering helped develop the Tesla Model S and X from 2012 to 2013, before a two year run at Ford.
After that, Kaunitz joined Chinese EV automaker NIO as employee number nine and the company’s first US-based engineer. He built and led that initial engineering team that developed NIO’s ES8 and ES6 BEV platforms.
Since then, Kaunitz has continued to build out his resume with roles at notable companies like Romeo Power and a year as the head of vehicle engineering at Pebble—another exciting startup that is no stranger to Electrek‘s homepage.
Per the release, Kaunitz will look to bring his “design-for-manufacturing” philosophy to Aptera’s production strategy. Aptera co-founder and co-CEO Steve Fambro elaborated:
Leon is exactly the kind of systems thinker and builder we need to take Aptera across the production finish line. He brings not only the technical expertise but also the organizational leadership and startup grit that align perfectly with Aptera’s next phase.
Per Aptera, Kaunitz will oversee the startup’s engineering and production readiness functions, focusing specifically on final integration and tooling validation en route to initial SEV builds. The new SVP of Engineering also spoke:
Aptera is redefining efficiency for the EV era. I’ve spent my career transforming advanced concepts into products that are not only innovative but also manufacturable at scale. That’s exactly what Aptera is poised to do, and I’m thrilled to help make it happen.
That’s a tall order, but Kaunitz has the experience on paper to help Aptera reach scaled production. When that may happen is as cloudy as ever, though. The Aptera SEV is still available for pre-order for only $70 down.
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