The first time you set eyes on the new Hyundai Ioniq 6, all stretched, swooping lines and Porsche 911-esque rear, you find yourself asking: what were its designers thinking?
If 2022-spec Hyundai were a more conservative, boring manufacturer, the Ioniq 6 wouldn’t look anything like it does: it would be a reskinned saloon version of the ultra-successful Ioniq 5 SUV. Heck, they could have just fiddled with the roofline of that car and churned out a Hyundai Ioniq 5 Coupé.
Then again, if Hyundai were a more conservative, boring manufacturer, the Ioniq 5 itself wouldn’t look anything like it does. By ignoring its rulebook and convention for that car, the Korean company produced a cutting-edge EV that fundamentally shifted its brand’s market position upwards. So it probably shouldn’t surprise that Hyundai has elected against a safe follow-up that gently reworks that model’s angular, Lancia Deltalike styling, instead throwing out everything bar the ‘parametric pixel’ LED light graphics.
So what were its designers thinking? The answer is 0.1x. That was the slogan that Hyundai styling chief Simon Loasby had printed on T-shirts for the team that developed the exterior design for the Ioniq 6. It refers to the drag coefficient target the team set to meet the car’s brief to be the most aerodynamically efficient four-seat, four-door electric saloon possible – a true “electrified streamliner”.