Lexus Wants To Build... A Mini?

The Lexus LF-A concept was a bonafide supercar, leading to a $400,000 production model that many rank as one of the greatest performance cars ever made. The brand new Lexus LF-SA is...absolutely nothing like that at all.

LF-SA stands for "Lexus Future Small Adventurer." The idea is that rising population densities will lead buyers to choose compact, efficient cars a la the BMW i3 or the ever-popular MINI Cooper. And Lexus wants to throw their hat in the ring. 

The exterior styling is striking, with wild angles that look as if they would be equally at home in a post apocalyptic Thunderdrome as they would on a crowded city street. Credit where it's due: it definitely doesn't look like anything Lexus has ever made.

The designers packed the insides with tons of technology, like a freaking holographic instrument cluster and, despite the fact that the entire thing is only 135 inches long, made room enough for four normal-sized people.

The LF-SA will likely never be made in the exact form you see here, but you can expect some of these design cues to make it into a production ultra-compact wearing the Lexus badge in the next few years.

John Munson is a contributor to Supercompressor. The smallest car he would ever own is a Fiat Jolly. Follow him on Instagram @jwmunson