Geneva show: Rinspeed's “grown-up golf cart” BamBoo

RINSPEED has revealed a boxy EV roadster that can communicate with other road-users ahead of its debut at the Geneva show in March.

The latest quirky concept from the Swiss company incorporates a screen with internet connection that displays messages to people in the vicinity of the car. The ‘Identiface’ displays the occupant’s social networking pages or offers of rides to other people.

The BamBoo’s rollbars also change colour to reflect the occupant’s mood, which Rinspeed says creates a form of automotive communication “beyond deafening noise attacks”.

The car has an inflatable canopy-like roof that doubles as a beach blanket, while the red interior is woven with bamboo thread. The back of the car continues the summer-and-sand theme, with two inflatable beach chairs stowed in aluminium cases.

The colour theme of salmon, lobster and yellow is designed to be “a reminiscence of the Seventies”.

The BamBoo’s 54kW electric motor, sourced from German company Frager, takes the 1,090kg car to a top speed of 120km/hRinspeed founder and CEO Frank M. Rinderknecht believes the car has the potential to enter production, saying that “there have been constructive talks for some time with a number of potential manufacturers.”

Rinspeed is no stranger to showing unusual concepts at Geneva. In 2008 it displayed the sQuba, a Lotus Elise-based fully submersible aquatic car based on James Bond’s Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me.

In 2009 it introduced the iChange electric vehicle, which had a four-second 0-100km/h sprint time and changed shape to reflect how many occupants were on board. The company also displayed the transparent plastic ReXasis at the show in 2007 and the gull-winged, ‘mood-sensing’ Senso three-seater in 2006.