![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/18/Unknown-12.jpeg?w=2560)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/18/Unknown-12.jpeg?w=2560)
Hyundai design boss SangYup Lee has engineered a dramatic design renaissance at the Korean automaker since coming on board from Bentley in 2016. From the new Sonata to Tucson—and especially the stunning N Vision 74 Concept—Lee’s designs are distinctive and eye-catching, but also nostalgic. (The N Vision 74 looks like the future we were promised in the 1980s, particularly.)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/18/Unknown-9-scaled.jpeg?strip=all&quality=95)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/18/Unknown-10-scaled.jpeg?strip=all&quality=95)
Now we know why. Speaking at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show, Lee told our own Chris Tsui that the transparent radio antennae plunked on top of the Ioniq 6 has its roots in a 1990s icon that nearly all of us can instantly picture: Apple’s transparent iMac.
“This is definitely intentional. Everybody is body-colored or black and Ioniq 6 is something very special. We have a very beautiful, streamlined roofline and … also the pixel [lights] is something that we take as our brand character which is nostalgic yet has a digital feeling to it,” Lee said. “The same idea applies to this antenna, it’s like the first-generation Apple iMac.”
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/18/Unknown-11-scaled.jpeg?strip=all&quality=95)
Most of us either had an experience with a Bondi Blue iMac or Graphite Gray iMac at home or at school—or both. The 2023 Ioniq 6, which was shown off this week with a 340-mile range in some trims and up to 320 horsepower from a dual-motor setup. A single motor, rear-drive version will have 149 hp and 55-kW battery. The Ioniq 6 is also equipped with an 800-volt architecture that can support charging up to 350 kW, which can replenish the batteries from 10% to 80% in less than 20 minutes.
Hyundai says the Ioniq 6 will go on sale in spring but didn’t say how much it will cost when it arrives. It’s not clear what versions will come first—big battery, small battery, rear-drive, all-wheel drive—but what is clear will be the radio antennae. And now we know why.
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