By Brian Lantier, CFA
NASDAQ: SEV
READ THE FULL SEV RESEARCH REPORT
After the market closed on August 12th, Aptera (NASDAQ: SEV) reported the results for the company's second quarter of 2026, ended June 30. The company remains in a pre-revenue position, so the focus of the earnings report was on expenses and the shifts toward production, as significant investments in tooling equipment were shifted from "construction in progress" to machinery, tooling, and equipment as it was placed in service for production.
With an estimated cash burn of roughly $2.5 million per month and cash balances of $10.1 million at 6/30/26, plus net cash of $5.6 million raised via the warrant exercise in July (discussed below), we believe Aptera's current cash balances are around $12.5 million as of mid-August.
Solar data released:
In June, Aptera released daily solar generation data from its validation vehicles, which the company has codenamed Atlas. The company shared data indicating the vehicle is capable of generating up to 4.42 kWh of energy from its solar panels, with a range of 3.6kWh –4.42 kWh depending on real-world factors like cloud cover and parking orientation for the vehicles at the company's Carlsbad, California, headquarters.
The company attributed the strong real-world power generation to the unique solar panel architecture it has deployed on its vehicles and its proprietary solar charge controller.
The company has consistently stated that its efficiency design target is 100 watt-hours per mile. If the company hit that target, it would imply that the Aptera Atlas would be able to travel 36-44 miles/day based on the test data released by the company, which is in line with previous claims that the car will be able to generate enough power to travel "up to 40 miles per day" from energy captured from the sun.
We are awaiting confirmation of this data from an independent source, but we still view this release as important because it has moved its solar power generation claims from simulation-based theory to actual solar output.
Body and Chassis Order
In early August, Aptera took a major step toward the start of production, indicating that it has issued purchase orders for major components for its first 40 units, including the body, chassis, frames, and suspensions.
Importantly, the company noted that, unlike its validation vehicles, these components are intended for use in its first production vehicles to be delivered to customers. These orders placed in the third quarter are expected to begin arriving at the company’s headquarters in October. These components should help the company make the jump from validation assembly to the start of production for deliveries.
Valuation
Based on our assumptions that the company can realize significant annual deliveries by the end of the decade and that, given the company's manufacturing model, it will achieve higher-than-industry-average margins, applying a 17% discount to future cash flows yields our target valuation for Aptera of $4.00/share. We are fine-tuning our near-term estimates, and we now anticipate delivery of a few vehicles by the end of 2026, which will enable the company to record revenue in Q4 (we estimate $200k). As a result of higher R&D costs and anticipated higher G&A costs in 2027, we are slightly increasing our loss per share estimate for 2026 from ($1.13)/share to ($1.17)/share and our 2027 loss per share from ($0.93)/share to ($0.98)/share.
We encourage investors to read our updated research report on Aptera for a complete picture of the company.
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