Swiss automotive design shop Rinspeed has readied a forward-focused vehicle concept that can be split into two for next month’s CES. The modular Rinspeed MetroSnap builds on similar concepts from previous years and places a big emphasis on convenience, with the ability to become a corner store, a local postal office or really anything its owners might care to imagine.
The newly revealed MetroSnap follows the original Rinspeed Snap and last year’s downsized MicroSNAP as another two-piece electric vehicle built to come apart when it matters. This means a detachable pod rides atop a skateboard chassis and can be removed, upgraded or replaced as needed.
Originally, the idea behind these concepts was to offer owners some freedom in how they use their vehicles, with the ability to fit it out with different types of pods. The 2020 edition carries on with this theme and features an upgraded changeover system allowing for pod swaps to take place in just seconds.
As Rinspeed sees it, these pods could be a parcel station for folks to drop off or pickup goods, or perhaps a health food store. These could not only be driven to a neighborhood and parked there, but with the fancy new swapping mechanism the pods could be pulled off and left on the street corner for an afternoon and then picked up by the chassis once its purpose has been served.
The latest modular pod concept from Rinspeed is again presented via a set of renders, but the company insists that “the crucial step towards series production has now been taken.” In any case, Rinspeed is set to give it a proper premiere at CES in Las Vegas, which kicks off on January 7, 2020.
Rinspeed’s MetroSnap vehicle can be a post office or a corner store [New Atlas]