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Genesis designer Luc Donckerwolke talks new sedan, 'post-SUV' phase

Luc Donckerwolke's office at the Hyundai Research and Design center outside of Seoul looks like an Apple store, all polished concrete, metal and glass and a Miesian lack of ornamentation. This makes sense in an environment in which Donckerwolke, as head of design for the Hyundai and Genesis brands, is attempting to privilege transparency: enhancing communication and accessibility. "We have to break this kind of castle syndrome that the designers are in," Donckerwolke says. "It's all about opening up." This undermining of Korea's traditional orchestrated, hierarchical and executory structure is part of what has allowed Donckerwolke to create widely admired concepts such as the GV80 SUV and Essentia electric GT in just more than two years since he arrived from the VW Group leading design at Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi. And also to design the all-new G70 sport sedan that will be introduced to the U.S. market later this summer. We drove the G70 just before arriving for an exclusive one-on-one at Donckerwolke's R&D office, the first American journalists to visit. Although our time behind the wheel was brief, and we drove only the top-of-the-line, 365-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V6 version, we were impressed with the acceleration, the balance and the material quality. We also noted that the G70 is very good looking, with a distinctive, muscular and aggressive mien that feels true to the company's mission to be at once "Audacious, Progressive and Distinctly Korean." Like much of what we saw and experienced in contemporary Seoul, the car hosts a unique blend of influences from America, Europe and Asia while offering a harmony of line and a grounded sense of self that seems endemic to the peninsula. This global-but-flavored template is intentional. "We are not going to do Korean cartoons on wheels," Donckerwolke says. "We're not going to become a patriotic Korean movement. It's only about the essence of the Korean culture that we are using as an inspiration." One thing we could not help but notice is that the G70 is a sedan, joining a pair of older, Hyundai-based sedans, the G80 and G90, to complete the Genesis lineup. This feels somewhat inauspicious in the moment, especially for the American market where two-thirds of new-vehicle purchases are trucks and SUVs. "As you probably have seen when you've been driving around, sedans are extremely demanded here in Korea. And, you know, we have a huge market penetration here.

Hyundai's Western designers want a Genesis supercar

Will Genesis build a supercar? The answer is that it could, eventually ... if the Hyundai Motor executives are convinced by the Western designers they've hired. Speaking with Peter Schreyer and Luc Donckerwolke at the New York Auto Show last week, Australia's CarAdvice reports that there is a desire within the company to create a supercar to cap the Genesis lineup, but that it might take a while. "It's still some time away, something like this," Schreyer told CarAdvice. "All these things take a little bit of time. We're just at the beginning and things like that, you know, we need to talk about and develop more." Donkerwolke seemed even more optimistic. "I won't reveal the secret now because it's still my baby! Obviously, yes, this is part of the interest of designing a brand, being able to create [supercars]. It's not just something which we'll do, let's say a rational traditional project, but there will be some highlights." The Hyundai N 2025 Vision Grand Turismo concept is shown above. Both Schreyer and Donkerwolke came to Hyundai from the Volkswagen Group. Schreyer now serves as one of three presidents at Kia and chief designer for the entire Hyundai portfolio. Donkerwolke recently joined him to run the premium design office for the Genesis brand, having designed the Lamborghini Gallardo, Murcielago, and Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 concept, among others. Joining the likes of the Acura NSX, Lexus LFA, and Audi R8 may be a priority for the designers, but they'll like face a difficult task in convincing the bean-counters in Seoul to ever green-light such a project. "This is very difficult for them, the company is there to exist," said Schreyer. "It's a business." Related Video: Featured Gallery Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo Concept: Frankfurt 2015 View 17 Photos News Source: CarAdviceImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / AOL Design/Style Genesis Hyundai Supercars supercar

Hyundai spotted testing Prius-style hybrid

The Toyota Prius has become an automotive icon – maybe less so among actual automotive enthusiasts than with the public at large – to the extent that most anyone on the street would recognize its five-door hatchback form and immediately identify it as a hybrid. Little wonder that Honda tried to emulate it with the second-gen Insight, but while that didn't work out so well for Honda, it looks like Hyundai is preparing to go down the same road with a dedicated hybrid of its own. Our paparazzi on the ground in the Arctic Circle have spotted this protoytpe and tell us what we're looking at is a new Prius-fighter from the Korean automaker. Snapped up high on a transporter truck, you can see the orange high-voltage cables underneath and a label with the letters AE HEV – the latter standing, of course, for Hybrid Electric Vehicle. We wouldn't be surprised if the AE stood for Advanced Experimental or Alternative Energy or something of the sort. Tipped to be based on the same platform as the next-generation Elantra, the new Hyundai hybrid is said to pack a 1.6-liter inline-four working in parallel with an electric motor juiced by a lithium-ion battery pack. It's expected to begin production in the second half of 2016, with a plug-in and possibly other variants to follow a year to a year and a half after its initial launch.