Fix Auto Oxnard North

The sQuba is Half Car/Half Submarine

Like something out of a classic James Bond film, let us introduce you to the sQuba, a strange underwater car with a peculiar name. At Fix Auto Oxnard North, we love all of the new automotive technology that is out there, and that's why we love sharing it with you on our blog. Who knows if we will ever see a sQuba in Oxnard, CA, but we can at least imagine, right?

The sQuba, designed and manufactured by Swiss company Rinspeed, is the planet's very first vehicle that can be operated on both land and underwater. This highly innovative concept by Rinspeed founder and CEO Frank M. Rinderknecht was actually inspired by the 1977 James Bond blockbuster movie The Spy Who Loved Me, in which one of the spy's cars drove into the ocean and took on the bad guys underwater. Rinderknecht took a chassis from a Lotus Elise and made it the base for the sQuba, and worked with submarine engineers to come up with the final design.  

The sQuba is a zero-emissions, all-electric vehicle that features three electric motors--one for land travel and two for on and under the water. When it travels on land, it is powered by its electric rear-wheel drive powertrain and utilizes rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for juice. Upon entering the water, the sQuba floats on the surface until the driver chooses to flood the interior to submerge it. It can go to a depth of 36 feet, as it is powered by two electric-powered propellers enhanced by a pair of Seabob water jets. The vehicle's top land speed is 75 mph; on the water at 3.7 mph and 1.9 mph underwater.

The SQuba can transport both a driver and passenger in an open cockpit. The vehicles' open cockpit layout is designed to allow the occupants to escape easily in the case of emergency. When operating underwater, occupants will breathe air carried in the vehicle through a series of diving regulators. The twin water jets mounted on rotating louvres at the front of the vehicle provide steering and lift while it is travelling underwater and the propellers at the rear provide forward movement.

The sQuba's interior is water and salt-resistant, so that it can be driven in the ocean. Additionally, it comes equipped with a laser sensor system made by autonomous cruise control system manufacturer Ibeo to allow for autonomous operation.

Sources: Wikipedia, Forbes and Yahoo