What's the news?

Hyundai's Intrado has been unveiled before its scheduled public appearance at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March. Created to display Hyundai's vision of how its future cars will look, the Intrado is the first vehicle designed under Peter Schreyer, Hyundai's Chief Design Officer, who joined the firm a year ago. 'Intrado' means the underside of an aircraft.

Exterior

The pictures reveal a crossover body style for the Intrado. It follows Hyundai's fluidic design philosophy, but is more aerodynamic, devoid of unnecessary elements.

Interior

It's visible from the pictures that Hyundai has given preference to function over form in the interior too. The dashboard is unlike any other car's we have seen before, and the flat bottom steering looks good. Carbon fibre is visible and the interior has an abundance of 'Beaufort Orange' trim.

Mechanicals

The central structure is made of carbon, while the body panels are made of lightweight steel. Powering the Intrado is a hydrogen fuel-cell unit that uses a 36kWh lithium ion battery. It has a range of about 375 miles and Hyundai says it can be refuelled in minutes. Use of a hydrogen fuel-cell power train means that the only thing that comes out of the exhaust is water. Exact performance figures aren't out yet.

Anything else?

As mentioned, this is the first car developed under Peter Schreyer, but the Chief Designer and the guy responsible for leading the team behind the Intrado is Thomas Bürkle. The vehicle will be showcased at the 84th Geneva Motor Show (March 6th to 16th), and it remains to be seen how Hyundai utilises the technology from this car in its current models.

Paranjay Dutt - 25 Feb 2014