Last September, the submersible Lotus Esprit immortalized in 007 – Irresitible Agent, was auctioned off for an astonishing €728,000. The buyer? Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors.
Millionaire Elon Musk has stakes in companies such as Paypal and SpaceX, the first company to market lunar flights. In addition to these two companies, Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla Motors, a company that will be involved in the transformation of the James Bond submersible Lotus Esprit.
The base model of the submarine is the Lotus Esprit. Presented as a concept at the Turin salon in 1972 and designed by Gioretto Giugiaro, it was one of the Italian designer's first “folded sheets” models. The production version was presented at the 1975 Paris Salon, with few changes to the study model. Well, but it's better to stop here, let's leave the story of one of the best mid-engined sports cars of the 70s for our Machines of the Past section.
Whether you're a fan of the 007 films or not, the best-known British secret agent ever, surely the image of a white Lotus underwater with four fins is not strange. However, and not wanting to spoil the imagination of the child inside each one, the reality is that the Lotus that was transformed into a submarine with the simple press of a button, didn't really have that ability. The underwater vehicle was actually a Lotus body with some hydrodynamic changes and four electric thrusters. The interior was not watertight and therefore the captain had to be equipped with diving equipment.
Like a child who discovers that Santa Claus is not real, Elon Musk was disappointed with the submersible Lotus Esprit from 007, however, his fortune allows him to turn some disappointments into dreams come true, so Tesla Motors will equip the submarine with everything needed to turn it into a functional (in the truest sense of the word) hybrid vehicle.
