What's all this about?

This is the new X Convertible concept from the Korean car maker Genesis (Hyundai’s luxury off-shoot), and the third in a trio of very good-looking concept cars from the firm aimed, it says, at exploring some of the design themes for its future electric vehicles. While its predecessors, the X Concept and Speedium were both coupés, the X Convertible is a four-seater cabriolet with a folding hard-top that looks good from pretty much every angle.

Take me through the design...

There’s no grille for starters — it doesn’t need one. Instead, the shape of an inverted triangular grille is created by long strips of LED lighting which stretch back around along the wings to finish at the doors. A parabolic curving line runs from nose to tail with a little flaring around the rear haunches for that classic “Coke bottle” effect. The rear-end design is very simple and elegant with the tailgate forming a concave ellipse shape with a small integrated spoiler. There’s a pair of thin lighting strips on either side of the tailgate (no light bar) forming a visual continuation of the front lights. Up top, the folding hardtop roof (in a contrasting dark colour to the white body) contains glass panels above the occupants’ heads which helps eliminate some of that slightly claustrophobic feel of sitting in a convertible with the roof raised. In all, there’s a faintly retro look to the X Convertible concept without it ever straying into a pastiche of anything specific. That’s further backed up by the dished wheels whose design looks, at first glance, like the old wire wheels you’d see on a classic sports car but which, in this case, are designed to specifically improve airflow and cool the brakes.

What about the inside?

There’s a specifically Korean twist to the colour scheme with the primary wool and leather finished in a dark navy said to be reminiscent of the roof tiles on Korean houses with the contrasting orange supposedly inspired by the decorative trims also found on traditional wooden houses there too. There’s no big dashboard-spanning screens here; instead the driver sits in a snug little cockpit with a wraparound dashboard that means all the controls and instrumentation are more ergonomic. For the other passengers, the layout is entirely traditional, with little more than an abundance of space and the view of the outside world to keep them amused.

The Koreans are really knocking it out of the park on the design front, aren't they?

Absolutely. Between production models such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, the Kia EV6 and concepts such as the Genesis X trilogy, Hyundai Pony and N Vision 74 (to name but a few) Korean manufacturers seemingly can’t miss when it comes to design just now. It helps that they can afford to employ some of the biggest names in automotive design. In Genesis and Hyundai’s case, for instance, the Chief Creative Officer is Luc Donckerwolke, the Belgian responsible for design classics such as the Audi A2 and Lamborghini Murcielago. Donckerwolke, in turn, replaced Peter Schreyer, the designer best-known for the Audi TT and Volkswagen Golf Mk.4 and who made significant contributions to the VW New Beetle.

Any production plans for this one?

Sadly not. It’s intended as a design study, though if that is the case, one might reasonably expect to see some of its design cues appearing on production Genesis models in the future.

David Mullen - 16 Nov 2022