Design Project: 2020 Hyundai City Car Concept

Looking ahead 10 years into the future, Nicolas Stone, a recent graduate of the College for Creative Studies, has developed a city-car concept as part of his thesis. The project was sponsored by Hyundai and features a design based on advanced technologies from MIT.

The concept features some pretty far-out technology. Try to follow this:

The car's body consists of transparent solar panels, which "collect ambient light" and create electricity. Now, that current doesn't simply power an electric motor. The electricity is fed into a water tank to split the hydrogen from the oxygen. The hydrogen is stored and used to power the vehicle while the pure oxygen comes out the exhaust. The car essential functions like a plant does, with its own version of photosynthesis. Funky, isn't it?

This technology is the result of research conducted by MIT professor Daniel Nocera, who calls the method "artificial photosynthesis." The pure oxygen helps replenish the "city" air we breathe, or can be pumped back into the cabin (like they do in Las Vegas casinos) to give you the extra boost you need on your way to work. Or an actual high depending on the quantity of O2 we're talking about - how's that for air "conditioning".

The car was designed by Nicolas Stone, and sticking with the naturalist theme, the interior cabin comes with a design that mimics "leaves growing off a stem" and with the seating laid out asymmetrically. The cabin's principle is to keep things as "open and airy" as possible.

That's your future city car au naturelle. Hey, if this works out, in 2020 you can trade in your obsolete 10 year-old Chevy Volt for this oxygen-filled, happy-making machine. Sounds like fun.