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Dune-inspired futuristic design from the UAE featuring Mecanum wheels technology

By Shahzad Sheikh

This sensational futuristic concept car has styling inspired by the United Arab Emirate’s dune landscape and Islamic art, and features an electric drivetrain with unique Mecanum wheel technology, allowing it to move in any direction.

The brainchild of 25-year old Emirati Air Traffic Controller at Abu Dhabi Airport, Mohamed Bani Hashim, the Dhabi, as he has named it, is a 21st century environmentally-friendly hypercar concept.

There’s some similarity to the Audi RSQ concept used in the Will Smith movie I, Robot, which also had multi-directional movement thanks to spheres instead of wheels (based on Omni wheel technology according to Hashim).

In the design, there’s also hints of Bugatti and Lamborghini, but there’s an organic animalistic feel to it. There’s something very feline about those eyes/headlights. It’s a great fusion of beauty, agression and exotic extremes and it would be amazing to see something like this actually built.

The Mecanum wheel technology, which hasn’t thus far been attempted on a full-scale car to our knowledge, is a highly complex system that allows a vehicle to crab sideways, move diagonally and even spin on its axis with independent motors powering each wheel.

Combined with torquey power units and race-bred chassis, the Dhabi could be an extraordinarily agile machine – add in hydraulic suspension, and it might even work as an all-terrain vehicle.

For the moment though, it remains a fantasy concept for Hashim, who has been drawing cars since he was in secondary school. It became such an obsession that he looked for lessons to learn the basics of automotive design.

Hashim’s dream is to work as a designer for Mercedes or BMW.

‘Automotive design is a part of industrial design, and industrial design is different from what an industrial engineer does,’ says Hashim. ‘Some people think that a car designer should be an engineer, but car design and engineering are different fields in my opinion, because automotive design degree comes under Art and design, but automotive engineer comes under engineer.’

He’s very serious about his ambitions and says: ‘my dream is to see one of my design come to light and see it on the street. I wont stop trying to achieve that goal.’

A design concept this good, definitely deserves some attention, and it would be fantastic to see at least a full-sized mock-up built in time for the Dubai Motor Show later this year. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for Hashim!