Swiss auto tuner Rinspeed is rolling into the Geneva Motor Show with a wild shape-shifting, iPhone-controlled electric concept car that adapts to suit the number of passengers.

At the touch of an iPhone app, the streamlined rear end of the one-seater pops up to make room for two more people. The adjustable rear end conserves energy by maximizing aerodynamics. The idea, company founder Frank Rinderknecht says, is to create lightweight, streamlined and efficient zero-emissions "individual mobility" that can adapt to suit the driver's needs. The iPhone controls everything from the canopy - there are no doors - to the ignition.

"The iChange is a signal for the coming global changes to individual mobility," Rinderknecht says in a statement. "We need to be ready to meet these changes with new ideas. We have designed and built an extremely flexible vehicle. In it we have brought the themes of versatility and continually changing energy demands to their logical conclusions."

Outlandish cars are nothing new for Rinderknecht, who unveiled the James Bond-esque sQuba submersible sports car at last year's Geneva show. With iChange, Rinspeed takes BMW's shape-shifting cloth-covered GINA one step further by ditching the gasoline engine in favor of an electric motor.

He might iFinally be on to something.

Concept cars tend to be out there, but iChange is wild even for the firm that brought us the hydrofoil Splash that sort of drives on water and the biometric data driving Senso. But take away the shape-shifting back-end, the bubble-like canopy and the iPhone gimmick and the iChange is a solid EV.

The car is built on the simple fact that lighter, aerdynamic cars require less energy than heavy, brick-like cars. iChange weighs 2,300 pounds, or about 300 pounds less than a Honda Civic. Maximizing aerodynamic efficiency and minimizing weight have become paramount in the push to improve fuel economy and extend battery range - witness the tweaks Toyota made to the next-gen Prius, GM's extensive work on the Chevrolet Volt and the teardrop-shaped Aptera 2ea. Function increasingly dictates form, and Rinspeed takes that in a new direction by making form adaptable to meet the needed function.

Propulsion is by a 150 kilowatt motor mated to a six-speed transmission pulled from a Subaru WRX. Off the line, the iChange does zero to 60 in about 4.0 seconds with a top speed of 137 mph. That puts the iChange in Tesla Roadster territory. Power comes from a lithium-ion batteries that Rinspeed says is available in two different stack configurations - one optimized for short trips, the other for long-distance driving. Rinspeed doesn't offer any specs on the batteries or even say who produced them.

The interior sports a Harmon/Kardon infotainment system and navi system that determines the most energy-efficient route to your destination and shows it in 3-D. Rooftop solar panels power the fans that control interior temperatures, a trick Rinspeed lifted from the Prius and Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid. Even the wool used in the interior was spun and died using eco-friendly methods.

For all the focus on high-tech gadgetry, efficiency and zero-emissions, Rinspeed hasn't sacrificed the traditional "car look" to the same degree as Aptera, nor has it produced a bland car like the Prius. Theres' almost no chance the iChange will ever appear in showrooms, but that isn't the point. The point is to push the auto industry in a new direction and get it thinking about new ways of building cars.

"If we want to maintain our individual mobility in the future, we have to rethink the car in its entirety, without taboos," Rinderknecht says. "Most of all, we have to take its econological aspects into consideration."

Photos: Rinspeed.

See Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXJurHsTtPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYQd6VKA-Oc