► Hyundai’s design boss calls time on light bars
► Used widely on its models
► But he thinks their time is coming to an end
Remember the days when you could easily recognise a car from its rear lights? Well, the only real disguisable feature on a car at night has seemingly been eradicated by the one of the most characterless pieces of modern car design – the LED light bar.
Whether it’s the front or rear, they’re present, and on cars as varied as the Tesla Model Y to the Porsche 911, you can’t escape them. It’s also a fixture on almost every Chinese car.
But Hyundai’s design boss Simon Loasby thinks it’s time the world’s car designers stopped slapping them on their cars, saying they are ‘almost at the end of their journey’.
Speaking at the reveal of the new Hyundai Concept Three, he said: ‘When is the time you need to let go [of light bars], it’s almost like the end of that. We’ve done it with the Grandeur, Kona and Sonata but now I’m like ‘guys, I’ve seen enough’.’
‘It worked at the time, and it was absolutely right, the Grandeur was the first car with a one-piece structure. The biggest thing is the cost level, you just can’t afford to do it and some customers don’t need it. Go to China and you must have it, but in Europe you don’t need it so much.’
Pixel lighting has become an instrumental design feature on Hyundai’s electric Ioniq models, and one of the few shared details across its cars. Loasby prides the firm’s designers for not going down the Russian doll approach.
‘We are looking for consistency but huge differentiation, and on a European context, that’s probably wrong what we are doing. But it’s right for us, and we have such a broad portfolio, it gives us a very big creative challenge per car. The 80 per cent difference and only 20 per cent recognisable and familiar, instead of 20:80. But it makes sense for Hyundai.’
The design boss is also flattered that other manufacturers are adopting pixel lighting, most notably the Fiat Grande Panda, jokingly saying ‘thanks for copying, thanks for being inspired by us’.
But he fears that the scope of what you can do with car lighting might be coming to an end.
Loasby said: ‘I think we are almost at the end of journey in terms of lighting. It’s almost like chrome. We then need to ask what makes logical sense for the customer and what makes emotional sense.’
New cars editor, car reviewer, news hound, avid car detailer
By Ted Welford
New cars editor for CAR and Parkers. Loves a car auction. Enjoys making things shiny
