James Bond’s car inspired Rinspeed to create the sQuba, the world’s first car that can dive underwater.

The 1977 James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ was a popular hit back in the time. From the remarkable performance of Roger Moore to the well-directed action scenes, the Bond movie was embraced by all. Apart from these elements, there was another object that turned into the talk of the town. Remember that Lotus Esprit that Bond used to dive underwater? That car fascinated car lovers and moto-enthusiast. In fact, that car became an inspiration for Frank M. Rinderknecht.

Frank M. Rinderknecht is the CEO of Swiss company Rinspeed, whose mission in life was to build a car that could dive underwater. Rinderknecht and his company gave birth to the sQuba; the first road-legal car that could be used on the road, water and underwater. They unveiled the car in 2008 at the Geneva motor show, where it gained a lot of attention. However, it failed to meet consumers. Why? Well, we will get back to that at the end of this article. For now, let’s advance with the car, the specs and its features.

The sQuba was a convertible sports car equipped with an all-electric motor, running on lithium-ion batteries for driving on the land. In the water, two Seabob jet engines did the job of moving it. The engine could develop a respectable amount of power as the car could touch an excellent velocity of 120 kmph on the soil. On the water surface, the top speed was 6 kmph whereas underwater, the momentum was merely 3 kmph. Now, it’s acceptable that the speed was noticeably less. But the car was never meant for reaching long distances underwater. It was strictly meant for a recreational purpose such as scuba diving.

The car’s interior was both water and salt resistant to ensure the interior does not get damaged. Since it was a convertible, the company added oxygen tanks for commuters to breathe. An essential question emerges here that why was it a convertible? Why not an enclosed capsule? It was done so that in case of any sudden mishap, the passengers could easily swim to the surface.

Going back to our initial concern of failing to identify consumers, the prototype itself costed a whopping US$1.5 million. That’s a lot of wealth which hindered the influence of this car, and therefore, it failed to establish a concrete platform in the automotive market.