One of the most stunning concept cars we've seen all year is... wait for it... a Hyundai

Photo: Hyundai Media Center.

On Friday, one of the most visually stunning sports coupe concepts that we’ve seen in the past year will be on display for the first time at the 40th Annual Concours d’Elegance of America in Plymouth, Michigan, which runs July 27–29.

And that concept car is coming from none other than Hyundai.

Connected-vehicle tech company Autotalks scores a reported ‘several million dollar’ investment from Hyundai.

Photo: Hyundai media center.

In April we ran a story on Autotalks, an Israel-based semiconductor company focused on the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications technology space, after they announced a collaboration with the Connected Motorcycle Consortium to enhance safety-related communication between motorcycles and other vehicles with which they share the roads.

Yesterday, Autotalks revealed that they have embarked on a major new collaboration—this time with a major global automaker. Through a direct investment in Autotalks, Hyundai Motor Company seeks to drive chipset technology for connected cars into its next generation.

You’ve come a long way, Hyundai (and Kia and Genesis): Unprecedented J.D. Power findings rank 3 Korean automakers at the top of the quality scale.

Photographed in the UK, this 1986 Hyundai Pony is an example of
the model that Hyundai marketed in the U.S. as the first-generation Excel.
Photo by Charles01 (posted in Wikimedia Commons).

If you’re old enough to have been around and aware in 1985 when the first-generation Hyundai Excels started arriving in the U.S with a bargain-basement sticker price of $4,995—incredible even then for a brand new car—you’re well aware of what a long way Korean automakers have come in the last 30 years. 

Meet the All-Electric Genesis Essentia, a GT Coupe Concept Unveiled at New York International Auto Show

 Genesis, the new luxury spinoff marque from Hyundai, revealed their new Essentia Concept at the 2018 New York International Auto Show. The Essentia in all-electric, high-performance gran turismo luxury coupe that the company says is designed around an "Athletic Elegance" paradigm, providing a vision of future Genesis product performance and technology.

"We understand our obligation as a luxury car manufacturer to create objects of desire, sparking passion and inspiration by emphasizing a culture while exceeding expectations in terms of technology and connectivity, bringing our outside world seamlessly to the inside of the vehicle," said Manfred Fitzgerald, a former Lamborghini executive who now heads up the Genesis brand globally. "This is what the Genesis Essentia Concept is all about, and we are thrilled to introduce our interpretation of an all-electric, two-door Gran Turismo here in New York."