Who needs an Aptera?

I'm not even a Star Trek fan (one of my favorite jokes goes like this: "What do you call Star Trek fans? Trekkies. What do you call Star Wars fans? Cool."), but I am in love with this modified 2007 Prius. From the decorations on the sides and hood to the seat covers to the "If you can read this, our cloaking device must be broken again" bumper sticker, this thing just hits all the right buttons. The Federation-issue Prius is named the Zhang Heng (after a 1st century Chinese astronomer) and is the work of Dr. Willie Yee from New York. The good doctor has not only done up the decoration of the Enterprius to the hilt, but he's added functionality as well. On Dr. Yee's site (warning: Firefox crashes on my computer when I try to go there, but Safari seems to be able to handle it) we learn he's installed 2 omnidirectional 4-terawatt phasers somewhere on the car. Dr. Yee would like to remind us that phasers don't kill humans, Romulans do. And look at those moon caps. Cool.


[Source: WillieYee via Autoblog]

Out of the 60+ teams signed up to potentially participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, there were four teams that brought cars to the big announcement at the New York Auto Show last week. One team we would have liked to see was Aptera with their Type I three-wheeler. But the vehicle was a no-show. But, and here's the crazy rumor part, a little bird told me that the reason for the absence was that the car was involved in some way with the new Star Trek movie. The look certainly fits and Boing Boing has a photo of the car on the set.

I've contacted Aptera to see if they had any official statement on this rumor, but the response has been silence. Perhaps our readers have a bit more information. Anyone?