Kia and Mini… The atmosphere has changed drastically with one simplified emblem.

hello. My name is Hyuna Shin. Hyundai Motor Company announced a variety of new cars in the second half of the year. Typical examples are the Ioniq 6 and the Grandeur. One big change point applies to these vehicles. That is, Hyundai’s new emblem will be attached. The new emblem will be applied to all new Hyundai cars that will be released in the future, starting with the IONIQ 6. It is said that the model with a complete change as well as a model with a partial/year change is the subject.

The new emblem attached to the Ioniq 6. photo = Hyundai

The new emblem is characterized by the use of aluminum material instead of the existing chrome plating. It is also manufactured in a thin flat shape. Hyundai Motor Company also carried out the emblem simplification, a trend in the automobile industry. Last year, when Kia changed its name from ‘Kia Motors’ to ‘Kia’, the emblem design and material were changed. It was the first change in 27 years. At that time, the K8, the successor to the K7, was the first to apply the emblem of a new aluminum material. The logo received a lot of praise for making the car more sophisticated. So, I know that there were quite a few people who replaced the emblem with a new emblem through a private company at the time. The effect that the emblem has on the overall image of the vehicle is huge.

A simple logo has the advantage of being eye-catching as well as this aesthetic effect. In particular, electric vehicles do not need a radiator grill. Instead, there are cases where the front part is decorated with a light-emitting emblem or a display panel. At this time, if the emblem is not simple, it is easy to cause light bleed. Replacing the emblem costs a lot of money because there are many things to change, starting with the sign of the vehicle, but it also increases the usability in terms of design. In the digital age, there is also a functional advantage. It is said that a simple logo made of only planes and lines is easy to implement flexibly on a digital platform.

Above all, changing the logo is an expression of the will of companies to move forward as a mobility company that can respond to electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, rather than staying with traditional car companies. All of these factors work in a complex way and ultimately affect the stock price, so automakers cannot miss even the slightest point of change.

In addition to Hyundai and Kia, many automakers have already gone through the process of simplifying the emblem for several years. It started with BMW Mini in 2015, and the most recent is Renault Korea. In March of this year, Renault Korea changed the company name from Renault Samsung Motors to Renault Korea Motors, and changed the logo. At that time, it was revealed that the new emblem was implemented as a 2D design. When Genesis released its first dedicated electric vehicle, the GV60 last year, it also attached an emblem that was 80% thinner than before. In addition, most of the global automakers we know well, such as BMW, General Motors (GM), Toyota, Volkswagen, Audi, Peugeot Citroën, Nissan, Mini, Volvo, etc., have undergone the work of simplifying the emblem. There are logos already applied to mass-produced cars, and there are companies that do not.

photo = online community

In this trend, Hyundai Motor Company has also carried out similar work. In the case of Hyundai, only the emblem material is changed, and there is no talk regarding design change yet. However, in some online communities, there were also rumors that the Hyundai Motor logo would change in this way. Of course, this is just a rumor, not an official one. If you look at the recently released photos of the IONIQ 6 that the new emblem was attached to, the existing Hyundai Motors emblem design was applied as it is. If you delay this, at least the design of the emblem for the new car to be released this year doesn’t seem likely to change. However, as Kia, who made a major change first, is getting a pretty good response, there is a clear possibility that Hyundai will also make a design change in the future. That’s all for today’s content. It was all Shin Hyun-ah.

Reporter = Shin Hyun-ah, reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]
Video = Yoo Chae-young, reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]