No, according to a United States government loan program.  The three-wheeled electric Aptera, which we talked about some time earlier right here, does not technically qualify as a car, and thus didn’t qualify for loans offered by the program.

Here’s the part that’ll really blow your mind open.  See, the government’s loan program defined “car” as a four-wheeled vehicle.  Thus, the Aptera is out of the game as it only has three wheels.  But, the three-wheeled non-car Aptera is also an electric vehicle, and is pretty much the epitome of everything the Obama administration claims to be looking for in green car tech.

Me personally?  I wouldn’t buy one myself.  Yes, it looks awesome and running on electric guarantees the fuel is cheap, but the biggest problem is that this thing would be eaten alive by wintertime roadways in the northern United States, where I’m from.  Road salt would do horrendous things to that ultralight body, and those three wheels likely would get terrible traction on icy, slushy, or just plain snow-covered roads, doubly worse considering that body is so low-slung it’d likely get caught in any snowdrift over six inches.  It’s a great idea, but it’s got a long way to go before it replaces a solid gas car.

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Is it just me, or does the upcoming word out of the Frankfurt Auto Show look like a bad soap opera?  Seriously–this is nuts.  One of the biggest such tidbits is how Opel is revamping the Astra line to pit it against Volkswagen.

No, seriously–considering that Opel is in the tank anyway because of its GM connections, and the further fact that it’s surviving on a massive loan from the German government, it’s probably not a good idea for it to go after the iconic German automobile that is Volkswagen.

It’s especially worse given the rest of the hurdles that Opel will be operating under.  They can only sell their cars in certain countries, their connection to GM is hampering their local operations, there’s that whole “surviving on a giant loan” thing, the boost from the European version of cash for clunkers is SHOT…frankly, this is just bad for Opel all the way around.

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