Hyundai's New Thinking For Future Mobility

HIGH WYCOMBE, UNITED KINGDOM – April 15, 2013: Hyundai Motor Company reveals unique concepts for single-person future mobility, designed for use in congested cities across the globe. Prototypes have been created by engineers working at the company’s research and development (R&D) centre in Korea for an internal contest called the ‘IDEA festival’.

For the last three years, Hyundai has been organising this internal contest to enhance and expand R&D staff’s creativity, and to discover fresh ideas for future mobility. There is always one overriding theme, but there are no boundaries for the ideas. Contestants demonstrate how new thinking can truly create new and innovative possibilities.

Hyundai’s engineers submit their ideas, which get evaluated based on creativity, technology, fun and relevance to the theme.

Winning teams from the first round then compete in a presentation contest and approximately half of the ideas make it to the finals. The final ideas are produced and demonstrated on the festival day in Korea.

There was a wide range of prototypes showcased at the ‘IDEA festival 2012’, including the ‘E4U’ egg car, one of the winning ideas.

Hyundai is currently preparing for the ‘IDEA festival 2013’ with its staff submitting their ideas this month. The theme this year is ‘R&D for Customers’, focussing on how to meet customers’ future needs. This reflects Hyundai’s current strategy to focus on developing the brand and customer experience. Each winning team will turn its ideas into working prototypes and showcase them in September this year.