The ’sQuba’ Car: Herbie the Love Bug meets Jacque Cousteau
Okay, so its not a “Bugâ€, but it sure has the quirky personality of one! The sQuba concept car was featured at the Geneva Auto Show this past week and really turned some heads. What made this vehicle so special you ask? Well, it was a lifelong childhood dream for Frank M. Rinderknecht, the Founder and CEO of Rinspeed Inc.

Frank always wanted to design a vehicle that could travel the open seas as well as the open road… and he has at last succeeded in his quest. This sQuba has been tried and tested and is actually capable of entering the water and traveling around like a tugboat.

But what makes this car truly amazing, is that after you are finished scooting around on top of the water, you can put on a diving mask and submerge it completely under the water while you do some fishy sight seeing.

Everything that you wouldn’t want to get wet on this marvel is completely waterproof for a depth of up to 10 meters. The entire body and interior is completely resistant to sea water, so this concept is actually capable of ‘real world’ usage. No “swimming pools only†for this James Bond apprentice.
Did you say the interior is water proof? Why yes we did, which should have given you the hint that you just might be getting a little wet on this underwater jaunt… or I should rather say a lot wet!

Every sQuba comes as a convertible, to make it as safe as possible. An underwater car is actually quite a giant liability waiting to happen, so he made sure that if anything went wrong, the passengers could just float up to the surface.
The sQuba is amazingly capable on both land and water. It has three Lithium-Ion electric motors to run all the multiple propulsion devices. One of the rear-end located motors is used solely for land cruising, and it is quite capable of pulling the sQuba to an impressive 77 mph with zero emission.
Once in the water, the other two electric motors kick in. On top of the water, the sQuba is capable of speeds of up to 3 mph using two twin-screw propeller drives.
Submerged, the sQuba uses a combination of the twin screws and two Seabob jet drives that get their suction through maneuverable louvers on the car’s fenders. While completely under the water, this marvel can negotiate the 10 meter depths at a respectable 1.5 mph.
All we want to know is… how much is it, and does it come with a harpoon option?


