Genesis design guru: “Nobody else in the car industry can do this”
Genesis design boss SangYup Lee talks to EV Channel editor Steve Fowler about the rise of Korean luxury brands and the secrets of Genesis design DNA
I first met SangYup Lee the best part of nine years ago when he was Bentley’s head of exterior and advanced design. We were in New York and SangYup was showing me around the British brand’s latest concept car.
Fast forward to 2024 and I’m back in New York and SangYup is showing me around his latest concept. This time the glorious Genesis Neolun all-electric SUV is about to reinvent luxury for Genesis, the brand SangYup has headed up the design team for since 2016.
When it comes to design – as with so many other things – there’s a real Genesis difference. And SangYup is taking all his experience of luxury products – before Bentley, he worked for the wider Volkswagen group and General Motors – and giving them a Korean twist.
Korean luxury culture is growing fast, whether that’s in K-beauty cosmetics or Korean art – it all has what SangYup describes as Korean restraint and, ultimately, taste. That’s something true to Genesis design, too.
The Neolun is a full-size SUV that, we’re told, is destined for production with some of the groundbreaking features of the concept mixed in with the detailed design that’s become a hallmark of the current range of Genesis models.
If you’ve never sat in a Genesis GV60 and seen the rotating sphere that doubles as a gear selector, you’re missing out on a great piece of automotive design. It’s no gimmick, it’s a piece of theatre that marks the GV60 out as being different, thoughtful, individual and high quality.
The stitching on the seats of the Electrified GV70 or the quality of the paintwork on every Genesis model – it’s all a cut above what you’ll find in many other premium brands.
SangYup takes his inspiration from many places, especially Korean culture. He references Korean moon jars, porcelain pots with incredibly detailed and sophisticated designs that link to the famous Korean son nim hospitality, too.
“When it comes to luxury brands, one of the key ingredients is originality – it’s very, very important,” says SangYup. “If you don’t have this originality, your DNA code is very difficult to make a story out of.
“So, with Genesis being a Korean brand, this Korean sophisticated culture and this hospitality, we really like to embed this into our vehicle, which is actually what we can do. Nobody else in the car industry can do this.
“We started talking about the Korean moon jar and the puristic approach rather than what the current benchmark might be.”
Sangyup also references the reductive design of the Neolun, where it has all the functionality you’d expect, but some of it is hidden behind the smooth body that’s “like a stone that’s been smoothed by the river,” according to SangYup.
It’s injecting this Korean-ness into its cars that marks Genesis out as being different, and also putting a degree of difference into the Genesis model range so all the cars have their own design direction.
“We have a really great bandwidth in the product,” SangYup explains. “For example, the athletic elegance like our 60 and 70 models. And when we get to the 80 or 90 models we emphasise more of the elegant side. It’s actually the combination cocktail of the duality that we play together within the Genesis boundary itself.
“All the design elements play a role in orchestrating from sportiness to elegance, all with a certain serenity. And serenity is really about the moon jars; there’s nothing that really shows off calm and serenity.”
The detail that’s gone into the Neolun concept shows the thought that has gone into making the design work, but also the functionality. The signature Genesis twin strip LEDs for example, on the Neolun concept are just 20mm deep. They’re normally 34mm and can now have the paint’s lacquer layer go over the top of the lights for a perfectly smooth finish – it’s beautiful.
Then there’s the floor heating system in the car, taking inspiration from the system employed in a traditional Korean house – clever thinking.
The clever thinking is also being injected into the Genesis Magma programme, set to produce a series of hot models that still look beautiful despite housing some of the most advanced aerodynamics on the market – something SangYup is overseeing.
The GV60 Magma Concept, for example, looks no less sporting than models from established sporting offshoots of premium brands, but when it comes to the design there seems to have been more thought into integrating the aerodynamic additions that are so important on high-performance models, keeping some of the purity so important to SangYup in Genesis models.
It’s the same inside, where sports seats are adorned with the same detailed stitching you’ll find in every Genesis model, even though it’s coloured orange to match the Magma’s perfect paint finish.
Whether it’s the more athletic or elegant cars, or the focus of the high-performance Magma models (available in colours other than orange), SangYup is ensuring that all Genesis models have a unique design flavour that’s different to anything else. And Genesis cars are fast becoming another luxury product that Korea is becoming famous for.