Exclusive: Why Hyundai Santa Fe takes a design "risk"

“That is so true," he replied. "When you first look at [the] Ioniq 5, it’s so solid and tight [that] nobody thinks it has a three-metre wheelbase. It has lots of corner work. The corners are round as much as possible to create this compact character. The Santa Fe appears to be big because the corners are pulled out as much as possible. You saw the big tailgate: it’s a slab-sized surface and the full width is used as a design element.

“Depending on product determines what design tool we want to use. But obviously the intention for an SUV is to say ‘I’m a big boy’.”

“Caring is our concept" for the interior, Lee claims. The instrument panel is curved so that it’s reachable “when you draw an arc with your arm; this is the curvature," he says. "And I’ve said this many times: until autonomous level four or five, the most important thing is that you have your eyes on the road and everything has to be easy to control, and this is why we didn’t get rid of the hard keys [and put everything on a touchscreen].

“HVAC is obviously hard keys, because this is one you use all the time, so without even looking at it, you just reach for it."

Behind the rear door, there’s a sunken grab handle sculpted into the body, with a step inside the rear door to climb on. “It’s one of the easiest access to the roof rack in the SUV segment,” says Lee.

Also the boot opening is wide. “A [saloon] has a trunk, an SUV has a tailgate space,” Lee explains. “That’s a lifestyle space, rather than cargo-carrying. So having a strong vertical line to emphasise the cargo area as much as possible, in combination with the shut face, it’s one of the widest tailgates. If you think about it, the shutline isn't the width of the tailgate, because there are cars like the Audi Q7, which has a clamshell, but that doesn’t show you how wide the space is. That’s defined by the sill inside.”

The Santa Fe’s boot opening is almost 1300mm wide.

“It’s all about family. Every seat has two full-sized cupholders and every seat has a USB port,” Lee says.

On forecasting what cars will look like four or five years hence, when design starts, Lee says: “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, to be honest. This is why we use big data to identify trends. We have to forecast the future of mainstream trends as closely as possible, so we have a big data group internally and we use another externally.

"Both indicated towards the outdoor lifestyle, particularly during the pandemic. Your car becomes your private safe space. RVs [recreational vehicles] are so popular.