Hyundai, Steel, & The Concept THREE — Interview with the Designers - CleanTechnica

The article features an interview with Hyundai’s design team about the Concept THREE, an electric vehicle (EV) concept that embodies Hyundai’s new design language called “Art of Steel.” This design philosophy celebrates steel as a material, emphasizing its natural curves, bends, and highlights that emerge from its inherent properties. Hyundai’s unique position as a car manufacturer that produces its own steel inspired the designers to explore how steel’s qualities could be artistically expressed in automotive design. The team used paper sculptures and bent steel models to study form, tension, and flow, resulting in the Concept THREE’s layered planes and intersecting bends that create dynamic highlights and a sense of tension in the vehicle’s bodywork. The Concept THREE is a hatchback, a choice influenced by the European market where hatchbacks are popular. The design process involved collaboration between Hyundai’s Seoul and European design teams, focusing on aerodynamic efficiency and distinctive silhouettes. The “Aero Hatch” silhouette starts low at the front and rises toward the rear, balancing aerodynamic