Hyundai is the first brand that has entered the true future by any classic definition. When sci-fi movies set way in the future designed make-believe cars with known companies, Hyundai's newest designs fit in with what they came up with. And right now, they're the only brand with the stones to pull this off.

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Look at the brand new Ioniq 6. Good lord, that is one futuristic machine. And not just because of it's 0.21 drag coefficient, teardrop shape or funky wheels. It's because it is fully production spec, and it has so many brand-new design elements packed in. I wouldn't be surprised if it shares close to nothing stylistically with current models, right down to the window switches.

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The retro-futuristic pixel LED motif. The ultra-minimalism, neon-lit interior. The artfully integrated rear-view camera screens. This amount of newness makes the design feel like the second truly futuristic design in quite some time. The first? The Ioniq 5, of course.

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If you went up to a film creative director in 1986 and asked them to make a 2030 Hyundai, this would be damn close. Especially the 5, with its brooding quad light signatures and straight black grille, emulating the classic Pony that rattled Hyundai into the American value automobile psyche.

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Note that this isn't supposed to be a homage to retro design. On the contrary, it's a celebration of distinctly futuristic design that successfully marries forward-thinking design principles with retro touches. Not in the way of making a car with modern underpinnings look retro (PT Cruiser, Chevy SSR etc.). Using classic design elements in ways that are bleeding edge today.

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The first two Ioniq models are Hyundai's bold bet that the future is electric. But it's also a confident gamble that the next decade of car sales will be won by making desirable, quirky cars that don't look like anything on the road. Keep in mind that this is a major bet, given the famed conservatism of American car styling tastes. Their thinking is that if this doesn't get people on electric cars now, then Tesla has already won.

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Even mundane, non-Ioniq designs are getting the same treatment. The new Staria is the first truly desirable, trend-setting van in what.......twenty five years? At least since the first Espace.

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Mind you, the Staria isn't technologically revolutionary. It's still gas-powered, has a largely normal, if modern, interior. But just look at that face, which you can get in cargo format! One could argue that this is even more "2030s Hyundai" than the Ioniq designs.

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Absolute home run. Knocked into the next decade.

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So back to my original point, Hyundai is the only carmaker that's actually bringing the future into the present. Giving us cars that could reasonably be assumed to be 2025+ models stylistically and technologically, at price points some regular people can afford. Wild designs, enormous leaps in refinement, range and capabilities, all of which are so far beyond their current crop of regular cars that it's amazing they come from the same company.

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I mean, the new Elantra looks cool. But nobody for a second is pretending that it's revolutionary, or more than a good Civic competitor that's been in a knife fight.

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No other company is taking these big bold bets, at least as of this writing in June 2022. Sure, there are some amazingly advanced and efficient designs coming out from top-tier car makers. For the most part, efficiency numbers, luxury and features have never been better. But none are really pushing the technological envelope, bringing their brands into the 2030s a full eight years early.

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The new 7 series? Lots of pretty lights and screens, but it will be forgotten in five years. Same with the S-class, cool gesture controls and Maybach 3D gauge cluster and all. Incremental steps.

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All the companies adding big screens to current models as a stop-gap. Neat! But not 2030-neat. Even large jumps for particular brands aren't to the level of what Hyundai is doing.

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The Silverado EV? Hummer EV? Mustang Mach-E? Laudable steps, and big jumps from their current models. But still distinctly and convincingly designed for three years from now. And that's the big issue with innovation with larger companies. The appetite or cahones simply aren't there to green light absurdity into designs.

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Yes, these designs were started five or more years ago. But Hyundai uses the same general timeframes. It's not like they have a magic ability to cut 30% of the design process that the other companies haven't figured out yet.

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The upcoming Equinox EV? Highly modern in 2021, already forgotten in 2024. The only design that's even close from America is the Cadillac Lyriq. And presumably the Celestiq will get there, but then again you truly expect it to for over THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

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BMW is arguably the next closest, provided it's able to deliver on the shock value and absurdity quotient with the XM. Polarizing details aside, the concept represented a truly wild take on what a BMW should look like. Incorporating the M1-esque roundels into the rear tailgate corners were genius. You really get a sense that BMW's designers are itching to put a 2030s-take on BMW into production. My money? The accountants will water it down.

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Which brings me to Tesla. In the lens of this article, they already won the futurism battle by a country mile in the 2010s. It can convincingly be said that they singlehandedly yanked the big makers into the 2020s both technologically and electrically. The Model S and large screen UX continues to be top of class, even a decade later.

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But until we see the next round of designs, including the Cybertruck production version, they've become victims of their own success. Their forward-thinking risk taking has turned their designs mainstream (and we're all better for it), but the design world has caught up.

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Well, at least in Korea.

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