Lexus Pedal Power

The new Lexus Hybrid is here, but it isn't another 4x4 that escapes the congestion charge - it's a pedal bike.

Lexus had high profile successes with its luxury hybrid SUVs, but their latest model to arrive in the UK might not be exactly what you were expecting. The all-wheel drive hybrid bicycle concept combines the pedal power of the rider with a 25.9v lithium-ion battery.

Debuted at the Tokyo motor show in 2009, the bike apparently shares in the L-Finesse design language of the rest of the Lexus range, and is arriving in Britain to mark Lexus’s sponsorship of the Great British Bike Ride, a four day charity event from Land’s End to Twickenham.

A 240w electric motor drives the front wheel via a belt system, and like Lexus’s other hybrids it has regenerative brakes that use kinetic energy to charge the battery.

Featuring an 8-speed electric gear system, that, according to Lexus “references the sophisticated eight-speed shift-by-wire automatic transmission of Lexus’s LS 600h” and a carbon fibre construction similar to Valentino’s Rossi’s Moto GP bike, the hybrid bike is a seriously advanced bit of kit, but the Japanese firm has said there are no plans to put it into production.