The Japanese automaker decided to show of its fundamental engineering and design values on a bike, so here it is: the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle.
The Lexus Hybrid Bicycle features a carbon fiber frame that has adopted the L-finesse design language, with an 240 Watts electric motor that uses an eight-speed shift-by-wire transmission.
The Lexus Hybrid Bicycle also uses a 25.9V Li-Ion battery pack and power is being distributed to both wheels through a belt.
Weighting just 17 Kg the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle takes around 2 hours to recharge while figures regarding ‘autonomy’ depend on the ‘driver’.
Lexus press release :
Lexus has established itself as an industry leader in bringing
advanced technologies to the premium car market. Now it has applied the
same thinking on a smaller scale to create the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle, a
design concept the captures the fundamental engineering and design
values of the brand, but with two wheels rather than four.
In every aspect this is Lexus, from the L-finesse design language of
the engaging and elegant frame, to the application of hybrid power, an
electric eight-speed transmission and lightweight carbon fibre
construction.
Lexus has brought what is one of the only two examples in existence
to the UK for the first time, following the bicycle’s debut at the 2009
Tokyo motor show. Its arrival coincides with the announcement of
Lexus’s title sponsorship of the Great British Bike Ride, a four-day
charity fun ride that will see hundreds of cyclists following a course
from Land’s End to the home of English rugby at Twickenham.
Lexus has pioneered high performance, low emissions and optimum fuel
efficiency with its full hybrid Lexus Hybrid Drive powertrain
technology. The Hybrid Bicycle adopts similar principles, with the
pedal power of the rider boosted by assistance to the front wheel from a
240W electric motor, via a 25.9V Lithium-ion battery, with a choice of
Eco or Power modes. And, as with Lexus Hybrid Drive, there is an
energy regeneration function that helps recharge the battery by
capturing kinetic energy generated under braking.
The Lexus Hybrid Bicycle has all-wheel drive, by means of a belt
system. It is equipped with an electric eight-speed Shimano internal
gear system, which references the sophisticated eight-speed
shift-by-wire automatic transmission of Lexus’s LS 600h limousine. The
carbon fibre construction shares the same light-but-strong composite
materials technology that was used on Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP-winning
motorcycle.
There are no current plans for the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle to become a
production model.
