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The all-new Hyundai Grandeur is a good mix of retro design highlights of the first-gen model and the futuristic design elements of new-gen Hyundais.
In the past decade, Hyundai had sacrificed the Azera nameplate in the US to establish Genesis as its face for premium customers. While the Hyundai Azera has always been a brilliant luxury car for the price, it has always been overshadowed by the likes of Germans, thus making it a seriously underrated car that deserves much attention. Nevertheless, the Azera has a good fan following back in the home market, where it is known as Hyundai Grandeur. And in an attempt to keep the legacy of the Grandeur going strong, Hyundai has just revealed the all-new seventh-generation version of its flagship sedan.
For now, Hyundai has just revealed how the Grandeur looks inside-out. While it is still unclear whether it will share the 2.5-liter inline-four or 3.5-liter V6 engines with the 2023 Genesis G80, it’s now clear that the Grandeur now distinguishes itself from the G80 with its all-new radical styling. Compared to the currently-available Grandeur/Azera, this new version looks entirely different, seeking inspiration from the Hyundais of the past but with a subtle touch of the future all around. And while this all-new Hyundai Grandeur is highly unlikely to arrive the US shores, it is one model we would definitely like to co-exist with Genesis G80 in the US market.
In the past decade, Hyundai made a significant turnaround as a design-conscious brand with its new-age fluidic design philosophy making many of its passenger cars and SUVs look stylish and successful. Hyundai’s focus on design has taken a drastic turn in recent years, with all of its vehicles having too much futurism in their looks. It was only a matter of for the Grandeur to receive the same treatment, which one can see how it has been designed all around.
Let’s start with the front fascia, which looks like a massive departure from the original first-gen Grandeur. Like many recent offerings, the Hyundai Grandeur also gets unconventionally-placed headlamps, which are positioned much lower on the corners of the front fascia in a squared-looking housing. These housings, which have rounded edges and silver-themed surrounds, get all-LED treatment, which in all likelihood might get laser lighting, at least as an option. Adding more visual drama to the front profile is the seamless horizon LED daytime running light, which sits at the top of the front fascia and is spread across the entire width of the car.
The entire width of the Hyundai Grandeur, between the squared-looking housings for the headlamps, is covered by an expansive diamond-themed grille. This huge-looking grille indicates that it is not an electric vehicle and will get a gas-powered engine. However, there is a possibility that it might get some form of electrification. This diamond-themed design is extended on the bottom part of the grille, where the blacked-out central part indicates the radar for the ADAS. All these elements of the Hyundai Grandeur look as radical as the pixelated features of the all-electric Ioniq 5.
A flagship luxury sedan needs to have a sense of authority and elegance in its stance when viewed from the sides, and the Hyundai Grandeur has that sense in abundance. The overall profile of the Grandeur looks long, with the sedan retaining a couple of design elements of the first-generation model. These elements include the rear quarter window panel between the C and D pillars and the bodyline, which is flowing below the windows from the edge of the headlamp to the edge of the tail lamp.
The other highlights of the side profile of the Hyundai Grandeur also include recessed door handles, door-mounted rearview mirrors, and multi-spoke diamond-cut alloy wheels. There’s a black-colored trim line positioned just below the door panels, which runs from the front to the rear bumper, highlighting the black body trim seen in the first-generation version.
While the front profile of the Hyundai Grandeur might look too overdone for some, the rear profile should impress those people with its cleaner and simpler-to-the-eye look. Move past the smooth hood lines of the front and squared-off fender lines of the side profiles, and you will see the Hyundai Grandeur features a sharply-inclined rear windshield, which flows downwards to the low-positioned, but huge and curved boot lid.
The side extensions of this curved line of the boot lid merge with the rear bumper, extending towards the wheel arches, thus making the car look wider. Adding more sense of width is the sleek-looking strip of LEDs across the width of the boot lid, which Hyundai is calling a ‘seamless horizon lamp’. This strip of LEDs gives one a throwback to the original tail lamp design of the first-generation model.
Hailing from India, Jeo has grown up dreaming about a red-colored Porsche 911. This fascination led him to study more about cars and their functionality in his automotive engineering days from the past. His passion for writing about cars directed him towards blogging, which he has been doing for almost a decade.