Hyundai might be part of the automotive establishment, but in terms of design it's acting more like a disruptor. The Korean maker is not just creating bold and challenging shapes; it's paying no heed to the traditional idea that all cars from the same manufacturer should have a similar look.
Instead, Hyundai is creating dramatic and dramatically different designs for each new model; consider the unique styling of the Ioniq 5, Staria and just-revealed second-generation Kona. Or the now-familiar but still kind of freaky Tucson SUV.
The next new Hyundai design statement to be launched in New Zealand will be the Ioniq 6, a sedan with pure-electric power that has a sleek-yet-retro look. Hyundai calls its design ethos a "streamliner". But what's that exactly?
The term was first used in the 1930 to describe vehicles that had a shape influenced by aerodynamics - which had been well-understood since the invention of flight at the turn of the century, but not widely applied to cars. It's now a running joke that many cars of the era were more slippery going backwards than forwards.
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Hyundai is very open about the styling inspiration for the Ioniq 6, which satisfies its desire for brave design but is also highly functional: a drag coefficient of 0.21 (no current production car is better) helps maximise what it calls AER (all electric range).
“Ioniq 6 started with a single curve that defines its profile and architecture — the ultimate streamlined form — and "Electrified Streamliner" became the pet name for the car,” says Hyundai head of design Simon Loasby. "The true beginning of aerodynamic design and engineering started in the 1930s and we felt that taking inspiration from that era – and indeed from nature – was the perfect way to create uniqueness and sustainable performance in the EV segment.”
Loasby cites the Stout Scarab, Phantom Corsair and Ursaab as particular influences on Ioniq 6’s shape.
The Stout Scarab (1936) was a super-luxury people mover (not that the term existed then) masterminded by journalist and aviation engineer William B Stout. It was loosely based on a fantastic flying car project, the Dymaxion, widely shown in the 1930s.
It was hand-built and high-tech all the way: the sleek shape, in aluminium, was created around the idea of an aircraft fuselage. The construction was monocoque, with a Ford V8 at the back. Even the suspension was inspired by aircraft landing gear. The whole thing weighed only 1400kg.
The emphasis was on space and comfort. The Scarab boasted groundbreaking features like swivelling seats and tables to work on, making it a mobile office.
But the concept was overly ambitious and horrendous cost (about four times the price of a conventional luxury car) meant only nine cars were completed. Today, the Stout Scarab is a rare work of automotive art.
The Phantom Corsair was a prototype two-door, six-seat vehicle created by Rust Heinz (yes, of the tomato sauce family) in 1938. It was impossibly ahead of its time, thanks to features like flush guards, hidden door releases (pushbuttons on the exterior and dashboard), an inbuilt compass and warnings when doors were ajar or lights left on. It was low (1.4m tall), like a modern sports car.
The Corsair was based on the chassis of the production Cord 810, but that was also regarded as very high-tech for the time, with front-drive, pre-selector four-speed gearbox, independent suspension and adjustable shock absorbers. The Corsair was heavy at 2.1 tonnes, but that excellent aero helped the 93kW engine push it to 185km/h.
Heinz intended to put the Corsair into production, but he was killed in a car accident in July 1939 and the project was frozen. Only one car was ever built - and still survives today.
The Ursaab (1945) was one of a quartet of prototype vehicles made by the Swedish brand as it expanded from aircraft manufacture into cars (the name means "original Saab"). The idea was to design a small car to compete with the likes of the Volkswagen Beetle - itself a streamliner of sorts - so it had to be compact, light and efficient.
The design team relied heavily on their aircraft expertise - mostly because they had never built a car before. With the project being so secret, they couldn't reveal too much in the pursuit of knowledge, although they purchased rival cars for research. Good aerodynamics and monocoque construction were key to the project from the start - both quite exotic for a mainstream small car.
The Ursaab concept was refined over three more prototypes before going into production as the Saab 92. The name was chosen simply because it was the next in a sequence, after the company's previous project: the 91 Safir aeroplane.
So yes, the unifying streamliner theme is aviation design. Another key Ioniq 6 influence acknowledged by Hyundai is the Supermarine Spitfire World War II British fighter plane. The company says its designers applied a Spitfire-inspired winglet to the side of the rear spoiler to absorb the air flow from the roof and reduce drag by minimising vortices at the spoiler’s tip.
You can see by now that analysis of the Ioniq 6 aero package is as much about cool historical reference as science, but we're okay with that. Hyundai has coined a phrase for that too: "emotional efficiency".
The car itself has a streamlined shape like the wing of an airplane, so when running fast, lift is generated aerodynamically by the difference in pressure between the top and bottom of the vehicle.
Once the Ioniq 6 design team finished its initial work on the exterior, they entered the wind tunnel: winds of up to 200km/h, generated by a giant fan, helped chase another 10 per cent of efficiency.
For the rear spoiler and several other advanced aerodynamic solutions, they used what is known as the "morphing technique", a shape transformation technology, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using a supercomputer. This allowed the designers to select the optimal spoiler shape from about 70 different options.
It also enabled the application of an active air flap, wheel air curtains, wheel gap reducers, separation traps and wheel deflectors to problem areas.
