Hyundai Santa Fe, Kona and Nexo win 2018 IDEA Design Award

Three Hyundai SUVs have won global laurels on the design front. The Korea carmaker’s design and styling has been recognized by the judges from the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2018, one of the world’s three grand international design prizes. Hyundai’s mid-size Santa Fe SUV, the Nexo fuel-cell SUV, and Kona subcompact SUV have received silver awards in the automotive and transportation category.

The Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA)’s prestigious award is one of the three most renowned design awards in the US, along with the ‘iF Design Award’ and the ‘Red Dot Design Award.’ The award selects winners of 20 categories, including automotive and transportation, consumer technology, and service design, based on standards such as design innovation, user experience and social responsibility.

The three silver IDEA Design awards won by Hyundai Motor are the most prestigious global design awards won in Hyundai’s history for the automotive and transportation category. In 2016, the Elantra received a bronze award.

The Santa Fe midsize SUV, redesigned and launched as the fourth-generation model in February, features a wide and stable stance, Hyundai’s signature cascading grille, and a composite light design comprised of LED daytime running lights positioned on top of the LED headlights, showcasing grandiose and dynamic exterior design.

The expressive and powerful all-new Kona adopts Hyundai Motor’s new family identity. The future-oriented composite light design and rugged bumper design ‘Armor’ together deliver a confident, progressive appearance with a sleek, sharp silhouette. The Kona has swept all three worldwide renowned design awards this year.

Meanwhile, the next-generation fuel cell vehicle, Nexo, has a future-oriented design that showcases its advanced capabilities, and thoughtful features like a horizon positioning lamp showing its future and current visual boundaries, and hidden rear wiper that fits in with the car’s clean image. The Nexo also received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award, earning recognition for its design excellence.

 "The three representative models that will be responsible for the current and future of Hyundai Motor's SUV line-up proved their competitive edge by achieving the highest-ever company performance in product design," said Luc Donkerwolke, Head of Hyundai Design center and executive vice-president of Hyundai Motor. “We expect this recognition will help inspire continuous improvement in design performance for Hyundai.”