The Lexus Micro LS Concept is a self-driving Peel P50 from 2050

Lexus is bored of being the car your dentist’s plastic surgeon’s golf coach drives. So it’s gone properly bonkers.

Not content with reinventing the LS as a six-wheeler sanctuary of van-based calm, Lexus decided it was a bit big. Especially for Japan’s cramped and congested cities.

'Perhaps,' it pondered, 'we should also create a last-mile vehicle for getting stressed rich types to their destination in something small and wieldy.'

Photography: Toby Thyer/manufacturer

Enter this giant art-deco lighter: the Micro LS Concept. It’s a single-seater self-driving three-wheeler. And the idea is you clamber into this for the last little stint of your urban trip, and let AI take the wheel.

Inside you get bespoke glassware, a reclining chair and the windows are slatted to promote privacy. Range? Price? Top speed? All unknowns. Because this isn’t a car, it’s an idea. It’s a mood board for Lexus, figuring out what might be the must-have luxury product of 2050 and beyond.

We reckon it salutes the Peel P50 – the Top Gear hero car which was so light and small you could carry it to work like a suitcase. The Lexus looks a tad too heavy for that. But we’re very on board with the new Lexus ‘we’ve gone mad’ era.