Germany's aerospace center has unveiled a concept modular electric vehicle that can change from a bus to a cargo van

The U-Shift.Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), CC-BY 3.0

• Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR), the German Aerospace Center, has unveiled the U-Shift, a concept electric vehicle that uses "capsule" add-ons to turn the four-wheeler into different vehicles, like a bus or cargo delivery unit.
• A prototype version that's the size of a "large van" was unveiled at a conference earlier this month in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
• The prototype is currently remote-controlled, but its maker plans on making the vehicle autonomous in the future.

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR), the German Aerospace Center, has unveiled the U-Shift, a concept vehicle with multiple applications, including cargo and human transport.

The flexibility of the vehicle is achieved by creating a modular "drive board" with several multi-use "capsule" add-ons. These individual capsules have distinct designs and purposes, allowing the U-Shift to transform into different vehicles for different uses and industries.

A prototype of the concept U-Shift was presented at the Interim Conference of the Strategic Dialogue for the Automotive Sector in Germany this month, and the project has received a little over $14 million in funding from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing.

"Entirely new products and business models can emerge from futuristic innovations such as the U-Shift vehicle concept," Baden-Württemberg's minister for economic affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut said in a statement.