MAY 09

As part of its People's Car Project (PCP) in China, Volkswagen has developed a concept car based on a crowd-sourced idea for an all-electric hover car that it will debut at the Beijing Auto Show.

The car is a two-person city car that hovers above the ground and travels via electromagnetic roadways. The Hover Car looks a lot like a flattened fish bowl with its circular design and large glass panels. Simon Loasby, Head of Design at Volkswagen Group China, said "The creative ideas from the ‘People's Car Project' give us a valuable insight into the wishes of Chinese drivers. The trend is towards safe cars that can easily navigate overcrowded roads and have a personal, emotional and exciting design."

Out of 119,000 submitted ideas, the other two picked by Volkswagen to become concept cars were The Music Car, which features OLED lights that create light shows to the driver's music and The Smart Key, which is just what it sounds like -- a car featuring a touchscreen key that provides information on the car's fuel level, security and more.

None of the cars will go on to become production models, but Volkswagen says they will use the people-designed vehicles to inspire features in future car models. Darn. I really wanted that Hover Car.

via Volkswagen

Comments (7)

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volkswagen = german company
written by Joel Spangler, May 09, 2012

Umm - Volkswagen is German - this seems awfully fake to me.

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Inspiring
written by Alex, May 11, 2012

It's great to see designers try something completely new and not just rehashing a typical car design.

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Amazing
written by Emmett, May 17, 2012

Lots of questions, but I will keep them few:

1) How what are the power requirements/charge?
2) Safety, overcoming friction with electro-mag won't this increase everyday fender benders, or worse?
3) The infrastructure of putting down electromag roadways seems emense. We complain about developing infrastructure for EV charging. Wouldn't this be an order of magnatude worse?

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Sorry Alex!
written by Carol S., May 17, 2012

Hi, Alex, sorry I meant to make a positive vote on your comment, but I had my mouse too far over and hit the negative instead. I tried to change it, but... "can't vote more than once on a comment." I think you are on the right track. Just tweaking the same old concepts is NOT progress.

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written by Net97surferx, May 21, 2012

Floating anything has the mobility of a feather in the wind. Only in sci fi movies can a vehicle turn on a dime. Only way I can see around wide looping curves for turns is to have counter magnetic coils on the vehicle so it suddenly makes a field at 90 degrees from the inlaid road to jerk the pod in a new direction. Hovering is cool and the concept is neat (though all 'glass' tends to get REALLY hot inside).

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Great marketing
written by Robert, June 13, 2012

None of this is real so no point speculating about the technical details, but the marketing aspect of this is really cool. VW is surely gonna pick up a few sales because of it. I'm sure the Chinese love being included in things, and this is definitely a way to include them.

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written by city auto body simi valley, August 10, 2012

Really china is the number one in technology so that’s why they are creating this new and unbelievable car, actually I am always prefer Volkswagen’s car but after seeing this video of electric car I have no doubt my choice is the best, but I am really shocked it is real or an animation.

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