Watch Aptera Employees Smash Prototype Electric Cars As Company Goes Under

Aptera, the California electric vehicle startup that once hoped for ten thousand sales of its futuristic three-wheeled 2e per year, ceased operations on Friday after failing to secure needed funding. As you can sadly see in these videos, in the wake of the collapse, the company's now-unemployed staff went on a rampage, destroying every prototype car they could get their hands on.

Four short shaky video clips taken inside and around Aptera's California facility have been posted on YouTube and brought to broader attention by GreencarReports.com. They show at least three Aptera bodyshells being crushed, dropped from a forklift, and unceremoniously left on a dumpster by employees whose actions and audible comments can only be understood as anger and disgust at how the company and their hard work come to nothing. We've got them above, but be advised that they are deeply unpleasant to watch.

There may have been some method to this maliciousness: By damaging the egglike composite shells beyond repair, the employees ensured that anyone who expected to pick up the works on the cheap would be denied critical parts.

More likely, these acts of what amounts to industrial vandalism are just a sad way of getting back at a company that had shattered its employees' dreams in addition to those of its owners.

UPDATE: An Aptera spokesperson claims the videos, though posted this week, were actually from earlier this year.

The bodies in question were not slated for demolition because on any ill will or malice from any member of the company present or past. These particular 2e's were defective and/or obsolete development properties that no longer had any value to the company.

No explanation for the laughter in the video was included in the statement.