For a company that built its modern reputation on doing the opposite of what everyone else was doing, Hyundai now finds itself wrestling with a new problem: success has made its lineup look… chaotic.
That chaos, however, is intentional.
At the center of Hyundai’s design philosophy is head stylist Sang Yup Lee, who describes the brand’s cars as a set of “chess pieces.” Each one plays a different role. Each one has a different personality. None are meant to look interchangeable. The boxy, pixel-lit Hyundai Ioniq 5 doesn’t look like the futuristic Hyundai Ioniq 9, which doesn’t resemble the city-friendly Hyundai Inster. And that’s the point.
But now Hyundai wants something else too: a family resemblance.
From Chaos to Cohesion—Without Killing the Fun
According to Hyundai Europe CEO Xavier Martinet, the brand is in the middle of a visual recalibration. The goal isn’t to sand down all the quirks that make Hyundai’s cars memorable. It’s to give them a shared DNA that says “Hyundai” without turning the lineup into a corporate cloning experiment.
“When we revealed the Concept Three at Munich, people said, ‘Wow, finally—something different that’s not another SUV,’” Martinet said. That concept previews the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq 3, and it shows where the brand’s sleeker, lower-slung cars are headed: sharper profiles, more attitude, and less of the upright crossover sameness clogging today’s roads.
Hyundai, in other words, wants to look more like a brand—but never like a spreadsheet.
Two Design Tracks, One Brand
Here’s how Hyundai plans to square that circle.
On one side are the SUVs and crossovers. Early glimpses of the new Hyundai Bayon and Hyundai Tucson suggest they’ll take cues from the slab-sided Hyundai Santa Fe and the hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo—chunkier proportions, tougher faces, and more of that squared-off, quasi-4×4 presence buyers love right now.
On the other side sit the cars and hatchbacks. These will skew lower, sleeker, and more aerodynamic, borrowing from the Concept Three and the Ioniq design language. Think less off-road cosplay, more Blade Runner commuter.
Two visual lanes. One brand identity.
Design vs. Price: The Eternal Tug of War
Martinet boils down car buying to two forces: emotion and math.
Design pulls the heart. Price and powertrain appeal to the brain. Which one wins depends on what kind of car you’re shopping for. Big SUVs and flagships? Looks matter more. Small A- and B-segment cars? Price still rules.
But Hyundai is betting that emotional connection—design—can tip the scales everywhere.
“When you look at the Ioniq 5, there’s nothing else that looks like it,” Martinet says. He’s right. In a sea of melted-soap-bar EVs, Hyundai made something that looks like a concept car escaped from an auto show. That willingness to be bold is what Hyundai refuses to give up, even as it tightens the family resemblance.
The Chessboard Expands
What Hyundai is really doing is maturing. It’s keeping the eccentricity that made its EVs and SUVs stand out, but adding enough shared styling cues that you don’t need to read the badge to know what you’re looking at.
Not a photocopier.
A chess set.
And in an industry drowning in lookalike crossovers, that might be the smartest move Hyundai could make.
Source: Hyundai