Deepal has applied for a patent for a built-in foot bath that is designed to fold away under the front passenger seat when not in use in what must go down as one of the strangest ideas for an automotive accessory in the history of the industry.

According to CarNews China, the patent features a retracting mechanism to stow the foot bath away in a special cavity, and it even comes with a disinfection assembly. It can also be quickly disconnected from the vehicle, and the application appears to show massaging rollers on the floor of the bath. WhichCar by Wheels has included a couple of AI renderings of how it could look (below gallery).

4

The patent also reveals Deepal has thought long and hard about the foot bath’s most obvious drawback: how do you stop the water from overflowing into the footwells when you’re cleaning your feet as you, say, go over a speed bump?

No problems. The report says the bath has “anti-slosh structures inside, as well as flow-guiding holes and anti-sway structures”. Although the bigger issue might be, who wants a foot bath in their car to begin with?

Deepal representatives said the patent “aims to address the challenges associated with integrating foot-car equipment into vehicles, specifically regarding the consumption of interior space and the difficulty of adapting such devices to existing vehicle structures”.

Whether the foot bath actually makes it into a production car remains to be seen, but if that does happen, it’d be a safe bet that it would only feature in a high-end luxury model. Deepal currently sells the E07 Multitruck (pictured below) and S07 SUV in Australia. 

5

Deepal’s foot-bathing idea is rivalled by the in-vehicle toilet that was the subject of a patent application by Chinese carmaker Seres in April. Like the foot bath, it is designed to fold up and slide under the passenger seat when not in use. 


The in-car dunny can be unfolded for use with the push of a button or a voice command, and it comes with a fan and exhaust pipe to get rid of odours. A heating element dries out urine and other waste, but there’s a drawback: the toilet’s tank has to be emptied manually.