Rinspeed sQuba
A James Bond fantasy car brought to life
Rinspeed CEO Frank Rinderknecht had dreamt about an underwater ‘flying’ car since seeing The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. 007’s swimming car was the direct inspiration for the sQuba, a modified Lotus Elise with three battery-powered electric motors and oxygen masks. When the aluminium-bodied, watertight Lotus drives into a lake, it floats. With the flick of a switch, power is diverted to two propellers and two waterjets to reach a leisurely surface cruising speed of 3.7 miles per hour. Getting the sQuba to dive requires driver and passenger to open doors and windows to flood the cabin. To travel at the maximum depth of ten metres, the driver must use the waterjets. On land, the zero-emissions sQuba can rocket from 0 to 50 miles per hour in 5.1 seconds but maxes out at just 1.8 miles per hour when underwater.