VW Beetle mobile shark cage

The submersible car is nothing new, but the latest offering from Volkswagen takes the concept a step further.

The German car maker has teamed up with the Discovery Channel for its annual “Shark Week” event to create an underwater car with a difference - it’s a shark cage.

The tubular aluminium protective shell, known as the “Volkswagen Beetle Shark Observation Cage”, is based on the dimensions of the style-focused small car and adopts the VW badge, has the car’s headlights and tail-lights and even wears its shiny wheels. It misses out on the body panels, though, and to our land-faring eyes the roof gap seems a touch too, er, panoramic for our liking.

Perhaps the most interesting part, however, is that the car (if you can call it that) can be driven underwater, steered by a Beetle steering wheel and propelled by a pair of oxygen-fed thrusters. Divers - or drivers - can also hook up to the car’s in-built air system.

Shark Week host and marine biologist Luke Tipple helped design and construct the car, alongside designers from Volkswagen.

“We took the Volkswagen Beetle and turned it into a shark cage. But it’s got thrusters and wheels, and it rolls along and can actually interact with sharks,” Tipple says.

“We had the Beetle Turbo to model off of, so we sat there literally with tape measures and paper diagrams and just bent the whole thing around, and this what you see. I think it’s about a quarter-inch off, but other than that it’s perfect,” he says.

“It’s really cool, I was more of a driver than a diver. It’s a really cool experience.”

As part of the promotional event, members of the public will be taken for a drive along the ocean floor in the car.