Browsing the www, I came across these impressive specifications: a four seater, cruising 120 knots on 125 HP, and the empty weight just less than half MTOW.
The good specs must come for a good part from the intensive use of carbon fibre which will make it expensive, yet there don’t seem to be many around – I can’t remember ever seeing one, though it has been marketed for five years now.
What have I missed?
The Wikipedia article shows a clearly inadequate range (700 km = 380 NM), while the manufacturer’s page says 630 to 720 NM. If all the parameters are as claimed by the manufacturer, it must be a very interesting aircraft indeed.
FYI, the APM 41 Simba has now been CS-23 certified with a Rotax 915. One of the first with this engine. Price is around 350k (with VAT) from memory, for a night VFR version with a G3X.
It’s a pity it is not approved for IFR, it would indeed be an interesting one.
The article say they could, but it is unlikely they do it without some financial support. Robin did it and sold a handful, with a much bigger customer base. Remember, in France, IFR is « for the rich » and out of reach for 90% of clubs and pilots.
It is said that they want to win the contract for replacing the TB9-20s of DGAC flight school. This could motivate them to design an IFR version.
There is IFR and there is IFR…
You could certify an aircraft for IFR and then find that actually flying it in IMC will do anything from blocking radio comms to crashing half the avionics, because the lack of a conductive layer within the composite and the lack of bonding (cables joinging the various parts together) allows various bits to charge up, due to the shedding of water droplets. Early Diamonds and Cirruses had this, and they were “IFR” from the start. Various threads – example.
According to this, IFR is fairly big in France, but my reading of it is that it is facilitated by a lot of VMC conditions 
I would bet that most of the sales of IFR equipped Robins were abroad – example.
And you don’t need to fly in IMC to do flight training.
Night VFR is probably just having the right equipment and lights.
