Hyundai, Genesis and Kia announced today that it will reorganize its design organization to flexibly respond to the rapidly changing mobility environment and lead the future mobility design trend in order to strengthening their future design capabilities.
With a system that allows bold and innovative design to be tried, it has revealed its will to lead the next-generation mobility market, including PBV, robotics, AAM, and more, as well as electric vehicles in the future.
To this end, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia have gathered a separate design center for each brand and promoted it to the ‘Global Design Headquarters’ at the headquarters level. In addition, under the Global Design Headquarters, two organizations have been established: ▲Hyundai Genesis Global Design Manager and ▲Kia Global Design Manager.
In addition, under the umbrella of Hyundai Genesis Global Design, two center-level organizations for each brand, such as ▲Hyundai Design Center ▲Genesis Design Center, have been reorganized. In particular, we plan to strengthen its position as a global luxury brand by promotion of the Genesis Design Office, which was in charge of the design of existing Genesis brand models, to a center-level Genesis Design Center.
As a result, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia have the foundation to further strengthen the design identity of each brand. Hyundai is developing vehicle design through the design direction of ‘Sensuous Sportiness’, Kia is ‘Opposites United’ and the Genesis brand is developing vehicle design through ‘Athletic Elegance’.
Meanwhile, in the personnel that was conducted with this reorganization, President Luc Donckerwolke was appointed as the Global Design Division, the head of the overall design direction of Hyundai Motor and Kia, and was appointed to the Chief Design Officer (CDO), and the role of the existing CCO (Chief Creative Officer).
In addition, SangYup Lee, who was the former president of the Hyundai Design Center, was appointed as the head of Hyundai Genesis Global Design, and Karim Habib, who was the director of the Kia Global Design Center, was appointed as the director of Kia Global Design. Vice President SangYup Lee and Vice President Karim Habib plan to establish and differentiate future design direction for each brand in charge.
In addition, the director of the Hyundai Design Center and the director of the Genesis Design Center were appointed by managing director Simon Rossby and managing director Yoon Il-heon, respectively.
“We expect that this reorganization of the design sector will be an opportunity to try new and innovative designs for Hyundai Motor and Kia’s future mobility,” said, said Luc Donckerwolke, president of the Global Design Headquarters of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia. “We will expand our consensus with customers through various design challenges in the ever-changing mobility market.”
