Citroen Above & Under is an independent concept vehicle designed by Sangheon Chung that asks a simple but radical question: what if a single electric car could split into two autonomous watercraft the moment it reached the shore? Published in 2023 as a forward-looking vision for the coming decade, the concept blurs the line between land cruiser and high-speed water vehicle in a way that feels genuinely new, rather than a novelty exercise.
A Dual-Mode Vehicle That Looks Like Neither
From the outside, the Above & Under reads as a sleek electric race car. Nothing on the exterior signals its second life on water, which is part of the point. The body is clean, low, and purposefully anonymous about its amphibious capability. The central battery pack sits at the structural core of the vehicle, serving both modes of travel and keeping the weight distribution stable whether the car is on asphalt or preparing to meet open water. Chung drew on Citroen's heritage of unconventional design to explore what autonomous personal transport could look like when the road simply ends. For those already drawn to luxury concept cars and hypercars pushing the limits of what a vehicle can be, the Above & Under sits in interesting company.
The Seabreacher Transformation
The most dramatic feature of the concept is what Chung calls the seabreacher split. At the water's edge, the cockpit separates into two independent modules, each one a compact, self-contained electric watercraft. These two seabreachers do not drift, they cut. According to coverage by Yanko Design, each module operates like an electric motor racing boat, slicing through the water surface at high speed under its own power. The transition between modes is the conceptual heart of the project, and it connects directly to a broader conversation happening in personal mobility around high-performance watercraft that prioritise speed and efficiency over bulk.
Autonomous Capability Across Both Modes
The Above & Under is conceived as an autonomous commuter as much as a design statement. On land, the vehicle handles routing and navigation without driver input. On water, each seabreacher module maintains that autonomy independently, meaning the two halves of the former car can travel to different destinations once separated. This is not entirely unprecedented territory. Dual-mode vehicles like the XPENG X2 eVTOL have shown that the appetite for vehicles operating across different physical environments is real and growing. What distinguishes the Citroen concept is the emphasis on water specifically, and on the idea that the split itself becomes part of the journey rather than a mechanical inconvenience. The TrendHunter feature on the concept noted how the design positions autonomous water travel as a natural extension of the daily commute.
Design Challenges Chung Acknowledged
Chung did not present the Above & Under as a solved problem. The concept openly raises two structural challenges that any real-world development would need to address. The first is noise: the transformation between car and watercraft involves significant mechanical movement, and dampening that noise to an acceptable level for passengers seated inside would require engineering work that sits well beyond current production norms. The second is structural balance. A vehicle with major moving parts that physically separate must maintain rigidity and predictable weight distribution in both configurations, and achieving that with a shared central battery pack introduces constraints that are not trivial. These are honest acknowledgements from a designer thinking seriously about the idea rather than simply rendering something spectacular. Coverage from The Gaze highlighted how the concept positions these tensions as the creative starting point rather than obstacles to hide.
A Concept, Not a Production Vehicle
The Above & Under is not available for purchase and has no announced production timeline. It is a design exploration, a proposal for what personal transport could become when the constraints of existing infrastructure are treated as optional. As a vision for the coming decade it sits alongside other ambitious projects in electric watercraft and autonomous mobility as proof that the boundaries between land and sea are worth questioning. If the idea of vehicles that work as well on water as on road speaks to you, the SAY29 Runabout Yacht offers a real-world example of what electric watercraft engineering looks like when it reaches production level.
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