“Hyundai has some sexy cars. Sexier than Alfa Romeo. That is the message I’d like to give to the world.”
Those were the words of SangYup Lee, the vice president of design for Hyundai Motor since 2016. According to an interview with Automotive News, Lee said he wants to add an emotional touch to Hyundai products through designs that are just as “sexy” as Alfa Romeo.
One such way of achieving this is by giving each Hyundai model its own look. The signature cascading grille will stay, but every model will have its own unique variation of the grille. This differs from the more common ‘Russian Doll’ approach that Audi and Mercedes-Benz are currently milking, but Hyundai aims to do just the opposite and move away from the “family look” approach.
This new design direction was heralded by the unveiling of the Le Fil Rouge concept (pictured), showcasing what the company calls a “sensuous sportiness” theme. Apparently, the theme is based on the “harmony between four fundamental elements in car design: proportion, architecture, styling and technology.”
Lee is no stranger to emotive and expressive designs. He was responsible for penning the fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro concept (the car Shia LaBeouf drove in the first two Transformers movies), the C6 Corvette Stingray concept and the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 concept.
When asked, Lee admitted that the sensuous sportiness design language will materialise on vehicles as soon as 2019. “The Hyundai look [will be] more [like] chess. You see chess as a king, queen, bishop, knight. They all look different, they function differently, but when together, they became one team,” he explained.
“The Alfa Romeo and Maserati, those are really sexy cars, even the Germans got a lot of influence from the [Italian] cars. That emotional, sensous beauty, you don’t find that in the volume brands,” he said, adding that Hyundai cars have to be designed to maximise emotional value in order for them to be sexier than Alfa Romeos.
The Genesis brand, on the other hand, will be completely separate from this design approach, because “luxury brands need originality.” Does this all mean Lee is able to transform Hyundai cars into those that can stylistically rival Alfa Romeos, such as the Giulia Quadrifoglio? Well, only time can tell. Would you buy a Hyundai if it’s sexier than those produced by Italian design powerhouses? Comment below.
GALLERY: Hyundai Le Fil Rouge concept
Hey Dr M, quick, hire this guy and Peter too…but make sure they are just regular employees in your 3rd national car project. Your cronies will continue to the top bosses.
Your 3rd national car will be the bestest car in the world then. You can reuse your ‘Game Changer’ tagline over n over again
Concept cars always looks nice until they start mass producing it.
To Mr SangYup Lee, the VP of design for Hyundai Motor, you claim Hyundai cars sexier than Alfa Romeo is a little bit BOLD don’t you think so!!
Beauty belies in the eyes of the beholder or to each its own so to speak. Lets hope the motoring journals & experts don’t make you eat humble pie ya.
wrong. the opinion of buying public matters the most . not the ” the motoring journals & experts”
Keep dreaming. Hyundais are cheap and full of bad taste
Just the name, Alfa Romeo, already 100 times sexier then Hyundai.Alfa Romeo is sexy, because she has the temper of a lady.
Hyundai still has a long way to go.
Alfa Romeo manages to do one thing everyone fails.
They somehow get the balance between style and being OTT especially for regular cars. Just look at the 156 and 156 wagon and the 159 and now the Guilia. Almost perfect proportions and just enough stylistic touch to move it from cookie cutter bland and far from being polarizingly ugly (ahem, lexus). Ok, i’ll give that the first 166 was a squinty eyed oddball, the even that, they got the side view proportions correct.
From the designer that penned the camaro and the c6 stingray, I think subtlety isn’t particularly strong in his styling vocabulary.
You are still way way behind when it comes to car design Hyundai, and don’t try to compare your cars with the Alfa Romeo as the Italian make is just too far ahead in terms of aesthetics.
dei somebody having too much soju
Sexier than Alfa? What a joke. Talk to Alfisti why they insist on driving an Italian bella eventho the car is so unreliable that it makes Proton Waja a good choice.
it’s in the choice of words. I can see that Lee holds Alfa Romeo in high regards. That is why he is benchmarking the brand’s design.
I can say “i want to be faster than Usain Bolt” or I could say “I want to be the fastest man alive”.