"Cool" cars not made by car manufacturers

Samsung, which we know today as a giant in the field of phones, chips, screens... had an automotive division in the 90s, which was then sold to the French manufacturer Renault. However, they are far from the only ones who have produced at least one of their own cars in their history.

Sony and Honda on the electric path

Sony, another electronics veteran, unveiled the Vision-S car at CES four years ago to compete with Tesla, but at the time they said it was just a concept they didn't plan to fully develop. Four years later, Vision S 02, the SUV version of its predecessor, was presented at this year's CES. It has seven seats, two electric motors, about 270 horsepower, but the range was not revealed. It is interesting that this time they are serious. They are to enter the electric car market together with Honda. It is not yet clear when this will happen.

Orange car

Outspan is a name that has made a mark in the South African citrus market. In 1972, with an unusual promotion, they wanted to spread their name outside the African continent, more precisely in Europe. Together with the English company Brian Thwaites, they took the foundations of the iconic Mini and produced six orange cars. They also added a special orange peel texture to it. The windows did not open, and at speeds above 45 km/h there was always a chance that the orange Mini would roll over. Of the six specimens, three are said to be preserved, mostly in museums.

Boeing wants to send a car into the clouds

Boeing has had quite a few gloomy months behind it, which, at least for now, have apparently not affected their vision of the flying car. In 2019, Boeing and Porsche announced a partnership to adopt the flying car market. We already have the first picture of the concept, but we still don't know when the car will take off. Porsche's research says that the market will start to flourish in 2025, and it would make sense that they would also introduce their first flying car by then.

Nvidia autonomous car

Even the graphics giant has his own car, or rather a computer on wheels. Roborace is autonomous racing that got its momentum during the pandemic when most live events were cancelled. Nvidia created Roborace for a virtual audience and there is no human driver behind the wheel, but the cars are based on Nvidia's Drive AGX chips.

If you already make tires, why not a car

In the 70s, Michelin built a prototype car to test its tires. They took the Citroen DS as a basis and installed two huge Chevrolet engines. Oh, but it had as many as 10 wheels, which is why it was called a centipede. Weighing more than 9 tons, it even had a truck tire in the middle, which was tested at speeds of up to 160 km/h.

NASA drew inspiration from Batman for its "car".

Ever since we started conquering space, the idea of a planetary exploration "car" has been developing at NASA. The Mars Rover was launched in 2017 and is designed to explore Mars. A human crew and a Mars Rover are expected to fly to Mars after 2030.

Samsung likes to play with cars

Although they sold their automotive division, that didn't stop them from three decades later (2019) introducing the XM3 Inspire, a concept car they built together with Renault. It is a reworking of the existing Arkana SUV, which Renault introduced a year earlier. The car was actually launched in South Korea and the sales figures were not bad.

At CES 2020, they also presented a digital cabin, which was equipped with a 5G network, with which they connected 8 screens, 8 cameras and an external screen to convey information to other road users.

Kalashnikov and car - two words that don't exactly go together

Apparently, the AK-47 is no longer selling as well as it did in previous decades because the manufacturer has expanded its wings into other areas in recent years. In 2018, they revealed the CV-1 car, which was inspired by the Soviet "tank" IZH-2125. At the time, Kalashnikov optimistically said that the CV-1 would have the same impact on the market as Tesla. Very confident, but of course we haven't received any new information about the project since then.

For the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia, they produced electric tricycles called Ovum.

What happens when a watchmaker builds a car?

We get a car that often finds itself the ugliest of all time. In the early 80s, Swatch experimented with the idea of small, attractive city cars that would be extremely cheap and thus available to the masses. The Swatchmobile, as it was called at the time, was supposed to be produced under the tutelage of the German giant Volkswagen, but the partnership fell through. Mercedes came to the rescue, with which Swatch Mercedes Art, or SMART, was produced.

Yamaha wanted to capitalize on its motorcycling reputation

Yamaha supplied engines for F1 racing cars for quite some time, which gave them the idea to build a sports car as well. It was called the OX99-11, built by Yamaha's Ypsilon subsidiary and British motorcycle company IAD. It was equipped with a carbon fiber body, a large 3.5-liter V12 engine, which was said to reach 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds and stopped at 350 km/h.

A long lull followed, but 10 years ago, the Sports Ride Concept car concept was presented at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Toyota hasn't always been an automotive giant

Fabric was Toyota's first love. Only after 10 years of operation, in 1936, they produced their first Toyota AA car. As they celebrated their 50th anniversary, Toyota was frantically looking for at least one example of its first car. It was found in Russia and is now in the Dutch Louwman Museum.

If we were to delve even deeper into the history of motoring, we believe we would find another gem. Do you perhaps remember another cool car that was not produced by the automotive giant?