Quick Six with Brian Gallagher, our Electrical Engineering Project Manager

Though he’s not first Aptera employee, Brian Gallagher has been a part of the company longer than anybody else. He’s now worked with co-founder Steve Fambro at two companies and is responsible for connecting Fambro with his other half, co-founder Chris Anthony.

Q: How did you become the matchmaker for two entrepreneurial spirits like Messers Fambro and Anthony?

A: While I was still working as an engineer at Illumina, my former employer where I met Steve (Fambro), I was working on my own suspension project in my free time. We used to get together and talk about our projects and, while I thought the scale of his efficient vehicle concept was crazy, the idea made a lot of sense to me.

Through another co-worker I met Chris Anthony, who was using composites to build his own wake boat in San Diego and working hard at something he believed in – just like Steve. After riding in the boat and seeing his composite technology, I was so impressed that I made the next step, set up a dinner and it just spun off from there.

Q: When did you start working with Aptera?

A: I’ve unofficially been with Aptera since it was still a concept, while I was still working with Steve at Illumina. When things started developing back in 2006, I did pro bono work on the dynamic controls and suspension, while also getting the integrated infotainment system off the ground. Then in January 2007 I started doing electrical engineering as an official employee.

Q: What was it that made you finally believe this Aptera concept was really feasible?

A: The concept of the vehicle, which I saw in the early stage because I knew and worked with Steve, and the ability to change the way people think about designing transportation clicked for me. But it was Steve’s, ‘I’m going to do my own thing, make it happen and blaze my own path,’ mindset that made me really believe in the company. Lots of people can dream up new ideas, but it’s only the ones who stay up at night to execute and work on them that will succeed.

One day I got a call from Steve saying that he was leaving Illumina to pursue his ultra-efficient vehicle concept. At that point he wasn’t looking to do anything big, just raising money to prove the concept, but I knew his challenge would be convincing others to believe. Then I saw that some investors had joined and I was convinced that this was realistic and I knew I’d be part of it.

Q: How is your role as electrical engineering manager different at Aptera compared to most automakers?

A: We’re fortunate because an electrical engineer at a typical automaker might only focus on the component side of the modules, not fully understanding the hardware that functions and tests it. But at Aptera it’s so open and we each have knowledge a variety of different arenas, from low-voltage body control components to the high-voltage area that works with the drivetrain and batteries.

Plus, rather than being assigned a specific project with a narrow scope, we’ve been really flexible to innovate and come up with new ideas that fit with Aptera, prototype them out and see what works. It’s like being given the key to someone’s house and being told to do whatever you want to the inside, and what engineer wouldn’t want to work like that?

Q: It seems that so much about Aptera is innovative. What have you contributed to the vehicle in that respect?

A: My core thing was always the infotainment platform. Convincing Steve we could create a PC platform in the vehicle that could be customized with software, like an iPhone, was huge. We didn’t just want the typical audio system because they’re 100 light years away from what we’re doing, and when we met Automatiks, who had the infotainment software to make our vision a reality, it all came together.

Q: What’s keeping you busy everyday as we near production?

A: Right now I manage the day-to-day operations of the electrical engineers, focusing on making all of the subsystems fit on the vehicle for production. All of the freedom to be creative means a lot of responsibility to make it work, but we get things done.