The Rinspeed UC? isn't just a commuter car, it's said, but an entire "mobility concept."
We’re always intrigued when e-mail comes in from the quirky Swiss design house, Rinspeed. Over the years, they’ve come up with flying cars, floating cars, and even a vehicle that can reconfigure its interior layout depending on how many passengers it’s carrying.
But the latest design exercise, due to make a more formal appearance at the Geneva Motor Show, early in 2010, is decidedly more than just another concept vehicle. It is, in the company’s words, “an entire mobility concept.”
Tomorrow!
The goal is to create “a new and highly emotional web-based car world that interweaves individual and public transport in an intelligent way. We want to create a community of people who are open for a new definition of mobility,” says Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht. If you want to cut through the hyperbole, read on.
Dubbed UC? – for Urban Commuter or, if you prefer, “you see? – the battery powered two-seater measures barely 8 feet, nose-to-tail, roughly the same length as today’s smart fortwo. That fits in with the growing list of pint-sized street fighters coming from a wide variety of manufacturers, even luxury marque Aston Martin.
(Click Here for a look at Aston Cygnet, which the British maker plans to put into production as early as 2010.)
But back to the idea of a “mobility concept.” In Rinspeed’s corporate vision, the UC? ould be paired with “an advanced railcar loading system (which) will add the option to cover long distances by train, comfortable, without traffic jams and stress-free.”
It would also eliminate the need for making numerous stops, on a long trip, to charge up the microcar’s batteries, which deliver a range of 75 miles, and a top speed of 69 mph. Even before you load your car onto the train, Rinderknecht explains, you’d go onto the Internet and book a “mobile carport with integrated battery charging station.”
So far, Rinspeed’s grand designs have been great for a diversion, at the otherwise serious Geneva Motor Show. We’ve yet to see the firm’s wackier concepts, such as the iChange, get past the show car stage. The Rinspeed release insists, however, that “there is a good chance that it will be built in series production.” The firm claims it is already holding “intense dialogues” with “volume manufacturers.” Perhaps we’ll be surprised with some details at the Swiss show.
But, if nothing else, the ever-creative folks at Rinspeed have us thinking about the way tomorrow’s cars really may transform the concept of mobility.