Lexus LF-SA Concept City Car Debuts in Geneva

One of the most innovative new concept cars on display at this week’s 2015 Geneva Motor Show is the all-new Lexus LF-SA Concept. Its name stands for Lexus Future Small Adventurer, so you can keep that in mind as you see the model in action in the video below:

Lexus tells us that the LF-SA Concept was designed by the Toyota Europe Design Development team located in Nice, France, and that it represents the newest adaptation of their ‘L-Finesse’ design language.

Looking at the exterior, it’s clear that this car’s design team intended to take L-Finesse in an aggressively futuristic direction. The ultra-compact LF-SA Concept’s entire body is only 3.45m long and 1.7m wide, standing only 1.43m tall.

Despite its petite stature, the exterior is rugged and dominant, like some sort of ferocious reptile with its maw open wide. Notice the inset ridge extending out from the headlights along the top of the wheel wells, and the wide ‘V’ shape made by the body lines along the side. The core of the LF-SA’s exterior, though, is undoubtedly that enormous 3D mesh pinched grille, with huge fog light slits cut into the front fender.

The LF-SA Concept’s rear-end is perhaps even more strikingly sculpted than the front with a rear spoiler, then a rear taper, then two humongous bulging rear wheel wells. And of course, you can’t miss those custom chrome alloy wheels with black brushed steel between the spokes.

Moving inside, our glimpse into the future continues with a 2+2 cabin that’s stuffed full of space-age amenities like a hologram display, touch pad and a heads-up display for the windshield. We can also see some sort of electronic rear-view mirror, and a crystalline dashboard interface.

Also note that Lexus has structured the entire cabin around the driver, hence the special dark blue coloring of the driver’s seat. In fact, the driver’s seat is stationary… The pedals and steering wheel are adjusted to fit the driver’s body, instead of moving the seat. Meanwhile, the rear seats are accessed by pulling the front passenger’s seat forward.

Unfortunately, Lexus had nothing to say about the LF-SA’s powertrain, which means that we’re still probably at least one conceptual iteration away from seeing a production-ready model. To get a better idea of what a production LF-SA would look like, our suggestion is to imagine a Lexus NX without rear doors and a slightly lower ride. We’ll have to wait until later this year to know for sure.

Either way, a city car absolutely makes sense for Lexus’ lineup, especially in Europe where these three-door micro cars are a viable trend.