Rinspeed will unveil at the Geneva Motor Show the sQuba, the world’s first real submersible car. The idea was first used in the movie "The Spy Who Loved Me", launched thirty years ago. But if in the movie the idea was just a fake, the sQuba is as real as it can be.

And it is this submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters that sets the “sQuba” apart from military vehicles. It also had to be a sports car that was converted into a diving dream in the facilities of Swiss engineering specialist Esoro. In a first step the combustion engine was removed and replaced by several electric motors. Three motors are located in the rear. One provides propulsion on land, the other two drive the screws for underwater motoring.

They are supported by two powerful Seabob jet drives in the front, which ‘breathe’ through special rotating louvers from HS Genion (for opening and closing the water intake). The rotating outlet jets were designed to be extremely light yet twist resistant by using high-tech nano materials, so-called Carbon Nano Tubes.

Power is supplied by rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries. Rinderknecht: “The ‘sQuba’ is a zero-emission car as documented by the rotating license plate in the rear. It produces no exhaust emissions.

Press release after the jump.

Rinspeed sQuba originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 14 February 2008 09:15 EST.

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