Lexus unveils electric car, but it’s made of cardboard

Lexus UK has unveiled a car that was created using 1,700 fully recyclable laser-cut cardboard sheets and is powered by an electric engine. Courtesy of Lexus

By Megan Turchi @meganturchi

October 8, 2015

1 minute to read

We’ve seen quite a lot of innovation in the electric car field recently. For example, see Tesla’s Model X with its falcon winged doors or Britain’s experiment with roadways that charge cars while they drive.

But Lexus is trying to take things to a new, weird level (or just to show off).

Lexus UK unveiled a full-sized, electric sedan made out of 1,700 fully recyclable laser-cut cardboard sheets. Yes, cardboard.

It took a team of five designers from specialist companies LaserCut Works and Scales and Models, supported by DS Smith, a cardboard company, three months to build it.

And it looks pretty cool.

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See what a car made of cardboard looks like:

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But why you ask?

Lexus says it wanted to celebrate the “skills of Lexus’s takumi craftsmen and women, capturing the spirit of Creating Amazing in design and engineering.’’ Creating Amazing is Lexus’s current global brand campaign.

The BBC noted that the members of the takumi are the “most experienced and revered members of the Lexus production lines – the black belts of the car-building world.’’

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According to the BBC, the car does in fact move, as the electric motor is mounted on a steel and aluminum frame, and it has a functioning steering wheel.