Elon Musk Paid $1 Million For James Bond’s Lotus Submarine And Said He’d Make It Work But Never Did
The technicians at Tesla have been publicly tasked by CEO Elon Musk to repair the Cybertruck that was blown up in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day and get it working again.
The pickup’s bed was loaded with fuel canisters and fireworks that were detonated in front of a Trump hotel, but the stainless steel body held up well and the battery was not damaged, according to Musk.
The driver, identified by authorities as U.S. Army Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, apparently died from self-inflicted gunshot wound, but his body was burned almost beyond recognition by the fire that spread into the cabin.
“Once we get this Cybertruck back to Tesla, we’ll buff out the scratches and get it back on the road,” Musk wrote on X.
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While there is no timeline for when or if Tesla will be able to recover the Cybertruck from investigators, Musk is currently in possession of another non-functional vehicle that he pledged to make operational a decade ago.
In 2013, Musk paid $967,120 at an RM Auctions event to buy the Lotus Esprit-style submarine used in the making of the James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” in which it was depicted as being able to convert from a road car into a submersible. The filmmakers actually used several vehicles to create the effect and the one Musk bought, which is known as “Wet Nellie,” was fixed in submarine form.
“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real,” Musk said at the time.
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The vehicle was built by Perry Oceanographic in Florida at a reported cost of $100,000 and used electric motors to drive its propellors, but was not equipped with driven wheels.
Despite Musk’s proclamation, it’s not clear how far Tesla ever got with its efforts to modify it, but in 2017 he confirmed it had given up.
“Will keep the original Bond Lotus sub as-is. That design can’t actually convert from car to sub. Have a new design in mind that does,” Musk tweeted.
The current whereabouts of the vehicle are unknown and Tesla doesn’t have an active public relations department to field questions. (Feel free to provide the answer on X, Elon.)
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As for the new design Musk referenced, nothing like it was ever revealed. The triangular shape of the Cybertruck does draw some inspiration from the Lotus Esprit and Musk has claimed that it can “serve briefly as a boat,” but Tesla has yet to demonstrate this ability or launch the “mod package” that will enable it that Musk promised in December 2023.
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Tesla has a history with Lotus as its first model, the 2008 Roadster, was based on the same chassis as the Lotus Elise. Coincidentally, another company unveiled a custom Elise that year that could actually double as a submersible.
Swiss concept car builder Rinspeed debuted the sQuba at the Geneva Motor Show as an homage to Bond’s Lotus. It also used electric motors, but could drive on land and operate at depths of up to 10 meters using a combination of propellors and jets mounted on either side that were also used for steering. One big difference from Bond’s Lotus is that the cabin was opened and unpressurised, so its occupants would need to put on a mask and regulators to dive.
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As for Musk’s Lotus, this isn’t the first time that it’s been out of the public eye for many years. After a promotional tour for the film, it was put away in a storage facility in Holbrook, NY on Long Island where it sat until 1989. When the rent finally went delinquent, the unit’s contents were put up for a blind auction and purchased for a “modest” bid by a couple who had no idea the car was in the lot, according to RM Sotheby’s.
As for what it would be worth today, the sky’s the limit, but now that Musk is the richest man in the world, he probably won’t be looking to flip it anytime soon.
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