The story of the Genesis brand is a fascinating one. Trying to build a competitive luxury marque is an extremely tall order, and for Hyundai Motor Company to do so so quickly after having gotten its own stuff together (Seriously, just 20 years ago the idea of a luxury brand from the maker of Hyundai would have been laughable) is genuinely impressive. What’s also impressive is just how much of a clear identity Genesis has built in just 10 years of existence, and now it’s leaning hard into that brand identity with “Genesis Design California,”
a ridiculously nice design facility in California.
“We’re not an arrogant brand,” legendary car designer and Hyundai Motor Company’s Chief Creative Officer Luc Donkerwolke told journalists during yesterday’s media event. He pointed out how open Genesis’ new building is — airy and welcoming. This building isn’t Genesis trying to be ostentatious, he said; it simply represents the brand’s commitment to the concept of “Design is brand and brand is design.”
And while, thanks in large part to Donkerwolke’s leadership, Genesis has done a great job defining itself as a design-focused brand (something that becomes more important as the world electrifies and cars can no longer distinguish themselves through things like engine sound, torque curve, transmission shifting behavior, weight distribution, etc.), there’s no question about it: This new design center is absolutely a flex. Genesis invited a boatload of journalists out to El Segundo to get the word out about not only how nice this building is, but about how Genesis is a rapidly growing brand with serious momentum.
While I myself was impressed by the building and will share with you what Genesis showed me, I can’t say I’ve fully drunk the Genesis Kool-Aid quite yet. While the brand has grown substantially (now selling 75,000 cars a year stateside), the road ahead is challenging. Tariffs are hitting Genesis hard, competition from China is only likely to increase, and then there are the extremely mercurial regulations that are screwing everyone over (though Genesis plans to ramp up EREVs and hybrids to help on that front). That is to say, I’m impressed by Genesis and its world-class design team, but I’m also not entirely sure about its future growth from here.
Anyway, with the skepticism out of the way, I’ll just share with you, dear readers, what Genesis showed me yesterday in El Segundo, just south of LAX.
Here you can see a bunch of journalists in the lobby hanging out with the Genesis X Gran Convertible concept:
Speaking of, what do y’all think of this blue interior?:
The lobby had a very natural theme to it, with lots of horizontal wood elements on the walls. Car models and sketches and photos adorned the whole area:
Before we could see more, we were ushered into a big room where executives showed us some slides.
To give you an idea of how much this event meant to Genesis, José Muñoz — President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company’s global business — was in attendance:
He was showing everyone that Hyundai Motor Company is planning on invested $25 billion in North America in the next four years — more than the company has invested since it began selling cars in the U.S. in 1986:
Muñoz also mentioned that his company just leapfrogged Volkswagen to become the second most profitable car company there is:
This slide shows just how broadly Hyundai is investing right now, with numerous partnerships and subsidiaries across industries:
Here’s Muñoz showing that Hyundai is crushing it, which is true:
Genesis, too, has seen faster growth than both Lexus and Tesla to 1 million sales, per Muñoz:
Muñoz mentioned an “EV Chasm,” the difference between real EV demand and formerly expected EV demand, and how Genesis plans to fill that chasm with hybrids, including EREVS (which we should all be excited about, because — especially for certain segments — they represent the best of all worlds)
As for future products, we didn’t see much, but Muñoz did mention the X Gran Equator concept, which is extremely cool:
Then there was the Gran Convertible from the lobby:
The company’s racing division, Magma, is going add some heat to each existing model, plus there will be one-off performance models:
And then Genesis is doing an “ultra bespoke” personalization thing like what Porsche, Aston Martin, and the other high-end automakers do:
It was all optimistic, as you might expect, but Genesis’s rise has been impressive, and it will be cool to see where it goes. Anyway, let’s get back to the “flex” that is the new design center.
When journalists walked into the courtyard, we were met with a GV80 and the Gran Equator concept, which looks absolutely sensational:
The clear glass, the big aggressive tires, the short overhangs, the minimalist styling — I love it!
While we were admiring the cars, Genesis opened the roof. An absolute flex:
The brand then showed us The Studio, which is where the clay models are created: 
We got a demonstration of the T-Scan Hawk II portable 3-D scanner, which digitizes the 3D clay model sitting at a very precise location on the floor:
Here you can see that front right fender going into CAD:
The coolest part of this section of the design center, though, is what you see at the back of this picture, beyond the catwalk (which Genesis say is there to help their team analyze the design from a different vantage point — up top — whereas the outside courtyard helps the team assess the design under natural lighting and from a farther distance):
You can see at the back a pair of 5-axis milling machines beyond the glass doors in what’s called the Milling Room (Genesis says it can make two full-size clay models simultaneously):
The doors themselves are opened by hand via a contraption made up of a giant metal steering wheel, a driveshaft feeding an actual Genesis rear differential, which then moves a chain that spins what looks like a steering intermediate shaft, which moves a pinion that drives the big rack:
Obviously, this facility is all about design, but I’m a mechanical engineer so that differential was my favorite detail.
Journalists them went to the “CMF” room — Color, Material, Finishes. There we got to experience… well, various colors, materials and finishes:
I thought the light room was cool, because, per Genesis, it’s set up in such a way that it matches other rooms in Genesis design centers around the globe. This allows designers to “see the same thing” (so to speak) as they assess colors:
The event involved Genesis promoting its “Prestige Black” vehicles and talking a lot about sustainability.
We enjoyed a round table in which execs talked about how they’ve built a methodology that allows all 21 studios around the world, across three brands, work together in a way that keeps things moving 24/7. Nobody has to wait for an employee to get back to work, people don’t have to come in on weekends to send data — they’ve got a setup that keeps Korea, Germany and the U.S. sharing data in a way that ensures the machine moves forward. Genesis seemed very proud of this.
The most exciting discussion was the one I had with Luc Donkerwolke; we talked about his personal cars, which I’ll show you in a subsequent article. They are extremely quite odd for someone who designed the Lamborghini Murcielago. It would be impossible for anyone to guess what vehicle he just used to pick up a Christmas tree, or what vehicle he just had fully restored.
One thing I did get the impression of was that Luc has been given free reign to do all sorts of crazy stuff. I’ve known Luc personally for a few years now; he’s a true car nut, and it seems his bosses have empowered him to get Genesis into various racing series, to hire Jackie Ickx as a race advisor, and to branch the Genesis brand out into some quite interesting new areas like off-road (as we saw with the Gran Equator). He also showed me a video of his team doing donuts in the X Gran Berlinetta Concept in what looked like a design center’s courtyard. That’s this thing:
Clearly they’re having fun.
Genesis has plenty of challenges ahead, sure, but as a brand only 10 years old, it’s already made a name for itself. This is a brand run by designers. “We hire good designers that have talent and social competence,” Donkerwolke told journalists about leadership within his team. “We don’t hire managers. We are designers, and this is what we’re paid to for.”
Obviously, there are many other parts of the company beyond just design — building cars, after all, is a multifaceted endeavor. But, at Genesis, it’s clear that design rules all, and this is not the case for many car companies. Take Lucid, which is clearly an engineering-first company that would rather make its SUV look like a jelly bean-minivan to get maximum aerodynamic efficiency than make it actually look good. At Chrysler, where I worked as an engineer in a former life, there was tension between engineering and design just as there is everywhere, but I felt that the balance was in the designers’ favor. Their goals held more weight than engineering’s concerns, and this pushed engineering to innovate. I get the impression that Genesis is more like Chrysler, but amped up to about 1000.
Anyway, that’s all I got. Nothing groundbreaking, maybe a bit too puff-piece-y, but hey, I have the privilege of getting to see automakers’ facilities, and it’s my job to share that privilege with you, dear readers.
This is what their showrooms should be modeled after.
Based on the map – we now know that somebody’s two favorite places in Santa Monica are in the vicinity of El Cholo and the Bristol Farms on Wilshire…
…however calling the Lucid Gravity ugly because of its aerodynamic form factor is a bad call. We need more vehicles without numerous angry/gaping maws (Half of which are fake or blocked off – just there for the intimidation effect) and dozens of oversized, blinding headlights.
And yeah – Loving the periwinkle interior.
But make mine red.
I’m not sure I’m the blue interior buyer but I would love it if I had more choices than black or tan.
Remembering Fords with red interiors were common. Ugly. The blue is better.
More plaid.
Regarding the five guys sitting under the Genesis logo: The young man in the middle is ready for anything, come Hell or high water.
“My feet are soaked, but my cuffs are bone dry!”
He’ll be the one laughing when climate change really hits and El Segundo is submerged.
It’s about a half hour walk to Mattel. I wonder it the Hot Wheels folks and these guy’s bump into each other at lunch.
i’m sure they do. Car design is a small world. Art Center specifically tailors part of its transportation design curriculum towards designing Hot Heels.
Hot Heels sounds more like a FIT program.
Freudian slip on my part.
Insert something snarky here about tossing a fiver over to the Hyundai brand designers who apparently have to scrape racoon poo off a dumpster and call that a car. I know they had some radical concepts some years ago but their actual products look like garbage.
I’ll be in my bunk.
That interior is way OTT for me, but I’m not the target. Importantly, it stands out and looks expensive, unlike many other makes, some of which are actually more expensive. If someone’s comparing a German bore-fest with their cheap-looking displays, some of the materials, and uninspired design to this (assuming a production version in the ballpark of similar) and they like this kind of thing, that could make it a must-have. It might even be the kind of thing that gets Genesis noticed in the first place and then other people at the country club or office see it and are impressed… Anyway, anyone who actually reads my rants here and remembers my avatar will know I’m not a fan of Hyundai at all, but I like what I see them doing with Genesis. They’re forging an identity while their long-established competition is lost and bland. Once they’ve achieved better recognition, maybe they can tone down the dual light striping as it’s getting more than a little out of hand. I don’t think it needs to go, just dial it back.
This Genesis is quite a bit different than what I think of when I think of Genesis. My neighbor has a Hyundai Genesis, 1st gen. There is always soot around the tailpipes on the bumper. It’s doesn’t help that it’s a white car.
I haven’t been in an automotive design center, but having worked with other types of designers, there are always ‘work in progress’ sketches tacked/taped on every surface.
This building looks too pretty for that.
You’re never going to see those at a media event like this unless the company wants you to see them (unlikely).
I meant ‘too pretty’ in the sense that they’d never be allowed to put up their sketches, even when the media isn’t around.
If they don’t encourage the designers to put their work up on a board then that’s not conducive to doing great work. Massimo was always very keen on seeing our rough pen sketches even of stuff we personally might not like, because he wanted to see everything in case he saw something he liked.
The Gran Convertible looks incredible, both inside and out. Just beautiful. I like the Equator concept too, but really just because of how radical it is. That’s what concepts should be like.
All these people referencing Q-Tip’s wallet and here I am thinking that Hot Wheels is based in El Segundo.
The last auto show I was at I spent some quality time with all the fancy brands. I want to see just how fancy fancy can be.
I sat in a Mercedes, a BMW, Audi, most of the usual suspects. For each of them and ESPECIALLY for the Audi, I looked at the sticker and thought “where the hell did they spend the money?!”. The interiors were plasticky, not special, bland, black. Sure, they had “premium” leather, but it felt like they sprayed an inch of polyurethane finisher on it–had that nice vinyl feeling. It didn’t smell like leather in any of them either.
None of them looked for felt special inside. These were not the low-rung lease offers, these were their flagships.
I sat in a Genesis G90. For the price (which was still very high), I felt like the money went into the interior. It felt like money was spent in all the right ways. The leather was soft and it smelled and felt like leather. The design of the seats, dashboard, door cards, all of it, felt cohesive. It felt like a special place to sit.
I am not in the market for one, but it really feels like the usual luxury brands are resting on their laurels and producing simulacrum where Genesis is really doing something that stands out.
I’m still a little wary of their quality, but time will tell on that front.
Different topic: most profitable car companies produce the shittiest cars. Not sure I’d want to put myself on that list as climbing.
I agree with all but the last statement. Stellantis makes truly shitty cars from top to bottom and is struggling, while Toyota is generally the opposite.
It’s surprising how much of an impact bad management, inefficiency and warranty work can have on the bottom line. That’s kind of the thesis of kaizen and the Toyota Production System.
Interesting. For the older marques, I wonder if it’s from designers getting blasé turning out luxury interiors year after year, and wanting to “refine” out the luxe touches that they’re bored with.
Those lightbars are dumb. Cars will crash. Having to fix that is stupid. Make the shape interesting. LED light bars aren’t interesting. What’s next? Underglow?
And for what it’s worth, the shape of that crossover thing is heinous too.
The shape is perfect.
I wouldn’t call a giant SUV “friend shaped” but it’s sure trying to be.
If they moved the round lights up to where they’re breaking the lightbars, they’d nail it.
The Gran Equator interior looks like a Barbour catalog barfed all over it.
Which is exactly why I like it.
They could have at least cut the number of materials/patterns for the seats from 4 to 2. Just a lot going on there. They need to come with an epilepsy warning.
Next time its cold and you put on a shirt, pants, a sweater, a jacket and a hat – Look in the mirror and think about what you just said.
And your belt had better perfectly match your shoes.
This is a weird defense of Genesis’s design if the bar is middle aged guy’s sense of style. And if you are counting my belt and shoes then I need to include the seat belt and floor mats in my material count.
I lived in and loved El Segundo for a bit.
I never understood why people thought they were being clever asking about their wallet. ATCQ is a stellar group, but that song was 25 years old then.
Dammit, and here I was going to be the 7th person to come make that reference.
Seems like a gigantic waste of money that could be spent on making the cars better. Some of the best cars ever were designed in dilapidated sheds.
Or at least spend it on making them less tacky. That jacked-up (in both the literal and figurative senses) thing is *awful*. Like the worst designer handbags that exist to advertise loudly that you can afford them. Or are stupid, maybe both. There was a time when expensive cars and clothing were epitomes of quiet good taste, but with cars those times seem to be FAR behind us.
are you always this pissy
I call them as I see them.
That’s how ‘luxury/cool’ works…I can afford* this and you cant*.
Except in so many cases they really can’t.
Real luxury doesn’t shout – it doesn’t have to. If you know you know, and if you don’t you don’t matter.
That’s what the ‘ * ‘ was for…they most likely have maxed out credit.
> There was a time when expensive cars and clothing were epitomes of quiet good taste
It comes and goes. See: 1920s, Delahayes, and the like.
For every shouty Delahaye or Duesenberg, there were a lot more quietly elegant Rolls-Royces, Packards, Lincolns, and even other Delahayes and Duesenbergs sold. All of them made chassis only (with exceptions, though the factory bodies tended to be exceptionally restrained). How that chassis was clothed was up to the taste (or lack thereof) of the owner.
But certainly nobody reveres a chintzy, poor quality 70s or 80s baroque barge the way they do those flamboyant cars of the ’30s. And they were pretty uniquely American – the Europeans mostly saw luxury very differently by then. Which did cross the Atlantic eventually. Asians seem to have FAR more baroque tastes.
How many of us see this as the ultimate dream job? Build me a little apartment in there, I’m moving in.
It’s still a big corporate environment with all the bullshit and politics that involves. It’s not an employment utopia.
Although my background in CNC, prototyping, modeling, thermoforming, tooling, and project management may give me half a shot, doubt they want a 61yo that is not up on the latest software. The set-up calls to me though.
Nope – that they spent all that money on the building means they will inevitably be incredibly penny-pinching with the staff.
Worked for a mfg startup like that. Supposedly the bldg budget was $1 mil, but they spent $2 mil. Was super nice. 2yr later, bankrupt and a German company bought the bldg for a heavy discount.
I worked for a company that got bought out, went public, and did similar – spent all the money on a fancy new office in a big city and expensive staff to man it, which was a total flop – didn’t increase sales or expand the business at all. Got taken private again by original owner for pennies on the dollar when the IPO money ran out. He nuked the new office and new staff from orbit. The dot-bomb days were HIGHLY entertaining, no? Those of us at the original operation just watched it all like a slow-motion train wreck and kept right on doing what we always did from our little non-descript office in an out of the way place – making money.
We ate a LOT of popcorn while all this was going on. The new managers and salespeople were complete idiots with no clue about the very particular industry we were in. It was literally fun to watch.
That’s something we like to joke about: Successful company decides to build a build a nice new/showy corporate HQ. Out of business within 2-5yrs.
No doubt. It’s an endlessly repeating theme. So many big names too. Look at Sears and PanAm as two *excellent* examples. Sear twice, first with the tower then the MASSIVE campus in Chicago suburbia. Maybe not two years, but the “statement buildings” were certainly harbingers of looming doom.
The building doesn’t look particularly expensive. Bare concrete floors, structural steel with a coat of paint, and metal panels. They probably had to supervise the contractor to not screw things up, but the materials certainly aren’t expensive, and the design is pretty straightforward.
Oh sweet summer child – you haven’t built anything, have you? All that wood and glass and airy openness cost a FORTUNE. A steel warehouse is cheap – this was emphatically not. And then the HVAC needed with all that glass – ouch.
You would be absolutely floored by how much polished concrete floors that look nice cost. I wanted that for the house I am theoretically building right now, and I couldn’t believe it. It’s WAAAAY more labor-intensive than you would think. And all that woodwork? Ouch. Wood doesn’t seem to grow on trees anymore. For additional perspective – the 8x8ft impact sliding glass door to my lanai cost almost as much as my Mother’s new KIA Soul. Glass is *expensive*.
Magrodomes are not cheap.
Which is why they’re generally only found on cruise ships.
Then there’s the indoor garden, the turntable with inlaid pavers/tile
Simplicity, minimalism and serenity doesn’t come for free.
Had to look up Magrodome.
My mom seriously considered one on our house, then she was going to settle for having her bed on rails so that it could trolly out into the garden. Then I reminded her about snakes, and that was the last of it.
We did have an indoor garden and a bridge over a fishpond separating two halves of the house.
I swear, growing up it was like my mother got her architectural ideas from reading 21 Balloons.
In the grand scheme of the Hyundai group operating budget this place is peanuts. The JLR design facilities are much bigger than this and they are a much, much smaller company.
Doesn’t change the fact that this was a very, very expensive building to construct. Nothing cheap about it at all. If JLR wasted even more, it explains a LOT about the pickle they seem to be in. Spending money on entirely the wrong things. I’d suggest spending it on quality control – and perhaps some really good network security consultants.
Cyber attack aside JLR are not in a pickle and neither are Hyundai/Kia/Genesis.
*Jaguar* isn’t in a pickle? Jaguar has been in a constant pickle since the day they were founded. And regardless of whether Land Rover is making money, this multiple, serial, Land Rover owner can attest firsthand that their quality sucks donkey balls and they succeed in spite of it because humans are not very smart on average, myself included when it comes to their projects. Spend the money to make that better for both brands, and not a laughing stock. And if the recent pink “redesign” of Jaguar is what is coming out of that design center, they *definitely* wasted the money.
Sure, the Koreans have the cash to blow on stupid shit – but you can always spend more making your cars better. Perhaps some of the money spent on this could have been spent fitting immobilizers to ALL of their US cars a decade ago preventing the rampant theft of them.
That’s a ‘dog & pony show’ studio. It’s totaly devoid of any actual work stuff. The real studio, is probably back in South Korea.
Two 5 axis CNCs and a clay modeling set up say otherwise. I know CNCs have come down in cost considerably since my first encounter 40 years ago, but it’s not nothing.
But there’s no ‘work in progress’ stuff at all. No visible cabinets full of the CNC support stuff.
Guess they made them move everything to back rooms.
Been there, done that, when the Big Shots want to do a Dog & Pony Show with important clients.
I remember one time we had to remove all of the stuff except the essential off of our desks and put on a pallet they stashed in warehouse.
FYI, we were the Engineering group, back when most stuff was in binders/catalogs/samples.
We joked that the Clients would think we were a ‘fly by night’ operation since so sparse.
I’m reading as it’s brand stinking new, hasn’t been worked in yet, not even final hook-ups, and calibrations done.
Two clay plates is not many. At LR we had 24. Being a satellite studio they may only have limited modelling facilities.
They’re not going to show the press WiP.
I worked at a couple non-car companies where we were instructed to erase or hide any white boards with WiP product ideas and plans before outsider visits.
It’s a small satellite studio and this was a very tightly controller media event – they didn’t show attendees every area on campus. OEMs never let media or anyone else have free reign inside the design studios where real advance work is being done so you’re never going to see ‘work in progress’ unless they want you to see it.
Rein* please and thank you
*hides from the wrath*
Shouldn’t you be eating your medicated Fruit Loops instead of correcting my spelling?
I can’t afford those anymore, so I have to survive off bile and invective
“We hire good designers that have talent and social competence.”
BOTH is a tall order!
Having been on both sides of the US Digital Service (RIP) hiring process and worked at several “no assholes” tech companies, I very much agree that it is quite difficult.
OTOH, if you set up the culture and motivations right, an Adrian-type can find a way save the antisocial shit for off-the-clock.
My advantage was I was older than my peers so knew (to a degree) how to get along in a corporate environment, although my autistic smart mouth wasn’t always diplomatic.
Unfortunately the pandemic and Brexit did for me as I wasn’t able to get a job outside of the UK.
…and I was at *several* tech companies because sometimes I get too neurospicy for the on-the-clock filter.
My manager kicked me under the table on more than one occasion when I thought the engineers were not doing their bloody jobs.
There are far more talented grads than there are jobs available. OEMs can be picky about who they hire, and usually once you’re in, your’re in because you have demonstrated the emotional intelligence and aptitude necessary to fit in. Having the requisite aesthetic judgement and vocational skills is only the start.
Love the blue interior but sadly the tacked-on infotainment screen still looks like they forgot about it until the end and then threw something on.
Genesis is putting out some great looking stuff. Even their SUV, which would normally I’d fall asleep looking at, has some interesting design elements.
I was just luxuriating in that sea of periwinkle.
“The clear glass, the big aggressive tires, the short overhangs, the minimalist styling — I love it!”
I too like my glass transparent and free of occlusions.
I.e. not tinted!
Fake windows are an abomination.
Were there snacks on offer? Ooh, Korean snacks?
Yes. Lots of them. And tea.
Man, that Gran Equator interior is rad. I really love what Genesis is doing – they seem like the only company with a real coherent design vision these days.
Ctrl-F: “XG350”
Sigh.
Ctrl-F: “Left my wallet in El Segundo”
Sigh. 🙂
I can’t say I fully grasp the value of design centers as a standalone concept, given the incredible cost and intangibles that go into them. But I appreciate the bigger idea of drawing inspiration from as many sources as possible, and being around like-minded people on a mission. But my inner CEO says you could simplify the whole idea and still get great results through different means (offsites/outings, changing venues, touching grass, and so on)
A good point!
All I could think about while dutifully reading all the way to the bottom was how many people would beat me to some version of “Hey, did you find my wallet?”
I don’t get it…
Maybe a Q-Tip would help.
He’s buggin out because he can’t figure out in what scenario one would leave their wallet in El Segundo
Oh My God everyone. just Clap Your Hands for this read and go on an Award Tour now
That was my main take-away from this. I can understand having design centers in different parts of the world and having cross-continental collaboration with very limited downtime but 21 studios has to be about 15 too many.
It’s not like this is Stellantis trying to design a single unique car for 18 different brands.
Secrecy is the necessity. You need a fully equipped self contained location with strictly controlled access, as well as it being a pleasant working environment.
Based on the pictures, especially that blue interior, I’d seriously consider a Genesis if they offered hybrids. Their design philosophy seems rather like Mies van der Rohe’s saying “form follows function”.