An intriguing first look at Hyundai’s eVTOL concept cabin | FOS Future Lab
Hyundai Group’s Supernal subsidiary has unveiled what the cabin of its eVTOL could look like at the Farnborough International Airshow. The concept was designed with the help of Hyundai’s automotive business.
The Korean marque utilised its experience and demonstrated its versatility, working beyond the traditional automotive space in assisting the development of Advanced Air Mobility solutions. Supernal aims to have its eVTOL homologated for commercial flying by 2028 in the US, before advancing into the EU and UK.
“In order for Advanced Air Mobility to become a wide-spread mode of transportation, every detail – from the passenger experience to regulations and infrastructure – needs to be addressed from the start and work in lockstep with one another,” said Jaiwon Shin, President of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Supernal.
“Leveraging Hyundai Motor Group’s mobility capabilities, Supernal is investing time and resources upfront to ensure the industry can scale to the masses in the coming decades and reach its exciting potential.”
The cabin concept came together using a number of automotive design processes, using materials and cues more familiar to a motoring cabin space than that of a traditional aircraft. There are five individual ergonomically-shaped seats, personal stowage spaces, deployable consoles, grab handles and more, which look more ‘car’ than ‘aircraft’.
There’s also manufacturability and scalability to consider, given that it’s expected more of these will be built per year than say, numbers of Boeing 777s. It won’t be troubling the Beetle for overall production figures but it’s expected eVTOLs and localised airborne future mobility solutions in general will be more numerous than traditional aircraft.
“The Supernal eVTOL vehicle draws on the competence of the Hyundai Motor Group and the skillset of experienced automotive designers, which allowed us to develop a new air mobility concept that is not only safe and rational but also highly emotional,” said Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Creative Officer for the Hyundai Motor Group.
If that last name rings a bell, it’s because he was the pen behind the Lamborghini Murcielago and Gallardo. He also outlined Bentley’s current design direction all the way back in 2015 with the EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept, and has for the last five years been overseeing a number of wonderful designs from Hyundai and Genesis. With it all riding on Donckerwolke’s say-so, perhaps this small slice of ‘future mobility’ will be instilled with the emotional flare we so crave.