Hyundai has revealed two concept cars that preview the expansion of the Ioniq EV subbrand into the Chinese market.The Venus is a sleek hatchback with a pod-like design and an interior characterized by a huge screen and glowing gold ambient lighting.The Earth is a chunkier SUV with unique “air-hug” seats that contour around your body.
Earlier this week, Hyundai teased two mysterious concepts called the Venus and Earth. The teaser pointed to the future of Hyundai’s Ioniq EV subbrand while hinting at a drastic departure from Hyundai’s current design language. Now, Hyundai has fully revealed the Venus and Earth concepts, showing off their sharply styled bodywork and revealing that these two vehicles mark the Ioniq subbrand’s expansion into the Chinese market.
Hyundai
The two concepts will make their auto show debut in Beijing later this month, as Hyundai officially launches Ioniq in China. Hyundai says it will develop unique Ioniq-badged EVs for the Chinese market and that future Ioniq models in the country will be named after planets, “symbolizing how each vehicle orbits around the customer” in the Ioniqverse. The marketing lingo may be corny, but at least the names are more interesting than the boring numerical monikers, such as Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 that are used in the United States.
While the Venus and Earth preview EVs designed for China, it’s possible that some of the new design direction spreads throughout Hyundai’s global lineup, and the concepts have a striking look. Hyundai says both cars feature a “single-curve” silhouette, where the vehicle’s profile is defined by just one form, instead of the traditional three-box design for sedans and two-box configuration for SUVs.
The hatchback is called Venus and features a sloping front end and a fastback roofline that make it look a bit like the current Toyota Prius. The body is covered in crisp lines and wears Radiant Gold paint, with the front splitter, wheel arches, and side skirts featuring a forged carbon-fiber look that appears to be speckled with bits of gold.
The Venus also sports a large panoramic glass roof and a transparent lip spoiler at the rear. One other cool detail, which you can see in the video, is that the brake pads seem to be inscribed with the design used on the Voyager Golden Records, phonographic records NASA sent into space on the Voyager mission in 1977 that contain sounds and data about life on Earth, intended to be found by any intelligent alien life that may exist in our universe.
Hyundai
Inside, the cabin features an octagonal steering wheel and a dashboard dominated by a large screen, with ambient lighting glowing from behind. There’s a mix of purplish suede upholstery and gold accents, and almost no physical controls. Gold lighting also peeks through lines carved into the floor.
Hyundai
Hyundai
The Earth SUV is similarly pointy-looking, with thin LED headlights tucked into a recess spanning the front fascia and flanked by a triangular vertical LED element. Whereas the Venus’s front bumper wears a wide lower grille, the Earth has integrated tow hooks and a skid plate. Chunky black cladding around the wheel wells provides a contrast against the Aurora Shield paint job, and the front end’s unique look is completed by a small window built into the A-pillar, between the windshield and the side glass.
Like the Venus, the Earth’s cabin takes a minimalist approach, with a squircle steering wheel and a tablet protruding from the dashboard, where the ambient lighting aims to mimic the shadows cast by trees. The seats are the most interesting part: Hyundai calls them “air-hug” seats and says they are made of soft air modules, which we guess can adjust to fit around your body.
While the Venus and Earth concepts are focused on the Chinese market, we wouldn’t be shocked if some of the design cues seen here pop up in future Hyundais elsewhere. The styling shows that Hyundai is thinking beyond the pixel-lighting signature found on its current Ioniq EVs, and that it continues to be unafraid to take design risks as the 2030s near.
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Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.
