Hyundai previews Ioniq flagship

EV concept majors on space and relaxing ambience; claims 300-mile-plus range

- FELIX PAGE

The new Seven concept is an outlandish and futuristic preview of Hyundai’s third bespoke electric car, which will go on sale in 2024 as a large, long-range rival to Volvo’s upcoming XC90 replacement.

The Korean manufacturer labels it a “category-bending” electric SUV, highlighting its aerodynamically optimised styling and long wheelbase as departures from the design conventions of combustion-engined contemporaries.

Some of its more radical design cues will be toned down for production as the Ioniq 7, but the recently launched Ioniq 5 remained largely faithful to 2019’s straight-edged 45 concept and the Ioniq 6 looks to be heading to production with minimal alterations from the preceding Prophecy concept.

Autocar reported last year that Hyundai planned for its first three bespoke EVs to have highly individualised styling, and indeed the Seven concept adopts a radically different silhouette – “divergent from a typical SUV” – and a raft of new cues to mark it out from both its range-mates and its fossil-burning forebears.

An obvious visual link, though, is the Parametric Pixel design for the front and rear light clusters – a feature common to each of Hyundai’s bespoke EVs, including its Heritage Series of reborn classics. This is said to blend elements of “digital and analogue styles” and highlight the rigorous approach of the designers, who “considered every aspect of Seven’s design, down to a single pixel”.

Sitting atop Hyundai’s EVspecific E-GMP architecture, the Seven benefits from a flat floor, short overhangs and bonnet and a 3200mm-long wheelbase (equal almost to that of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class L), which are all features that allow for a much more spacious cabin environment than offered by Hyundai’s existing SUVs.