Sangyup Lee

FOR REDESIGNING EV FORM TO FOLLOW FUNCTION

ELECTRIC VEHI

cles are becoming the norm, but with this encouraging trend comes a depressing side effect: conformist design. Touchscreen interfaces have replaced physical controls in nearly all Evs—except for the 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric, designed by Sangyup Lee.

Lee, who’s been the lead designer at Hyundai for seven years after stints at GM, Volkswagen, and Bentley Motors, drew attention in March at the launch event for the 2023 Kona Electric SUV when he took an iconoclastic stance against oversaturated smartphoneinspired design and backed it up with a noteworthy new debut. The Kona EV has a touchscreen but physical buttons and dials, too, for many of its most-used controls. “When a car’s on the move, especially with your family, the most important [thing] is safety,” explains Lee. Touchscreens require the driver to take their eyes off the road.

This decision follows another nonconformist decision. Hyundai’s 2023 Ioniq 6 EV sedan and Kona Electric

SUV don’t have a front grille, a 20th-century element necessitated by the internal combustion engine. “Putting the fake grille on the EV— this is not the right answer for me, because design is all about [being] genuine,” Lee says.

Removing the grille allowed for another Lee signature: his Parametric Pixel Lights, blocklike elements modeled after the pixels on videogame screens.

Since Lee became Hyundai’s top designer, the South Korean company’s revenues climbed to $107 billion (up from $73 billion in 2018); Hyundai predicts doubledigit revenue growth for 2023.