The submarine car driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me is to be converted into a real-life amphibious vehicle, its new owner has revealed.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk admitted he was the mystery buyer who bought the Lotus Esprit, made famous in the 1977 Bond film, for £616,000 at a London auction last month.

His identity was initially kept secret until automotive blog Jalopnik named Musk as the buyer on Thursday night.

The 42-year-old has since confirmed the purchase and revealed his grand plan for the car.

"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater," Musk said in a statement.

"I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."

In the film, Bond drives the car off a pier into the water where it sinks to the bottom before transforming into a submarine.

Several versions of the car were used during filming and Musk's purchase is an operational underwater vehicle, but does not work on land.

It is known as a "wet submarine", where upon entering the ocean the interior fills with water requiring the driver to wear a wetsuit and mask. 

In real life, the vehicle's underwater fins are non-retractable and it has no wheels.

Musk is the co-founder of electric car maker Tesla Motors and private space exploration firm SpaceX.

In early August he unveiled plans for a Hyperloop transport system capable of reaching speeds of 760mph.

The system would enable people to travel 400 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes at near-supersonic speeds.

He first made his millions when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300m (£194m) in 1999.

His next company, X.com eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by internet auction giant eBay in 2002.