“We don’t have the design DNA of a Jeep or Range Rover. It’s a different brand, so this car has the design DNA of a Genesis. I don’t care what the other brands do: I do it my way.”
Donckerwolke added that the pared-back design of the X Gran Equator was a deliberate contrast to other cars on the market: “We are living in a time where design is over-saturated. In every car, you have design elements where you can make three cars out of one, because there are an overkill of design elements. We don’t need that. Everybody is free to have their own identity, but at Genesis, we are living in purity. We are reducing. We are about what we call the beauty of the empty space, the white sheet of paper. We really care a lot about the proportions.
“This car has such incredible proportions that you don’t need to put a lot of make-up on it. If you have a pig, you need to put a lot of make-up. We are working to make sure that we don’t have a pig from the start.”
Inside, the dashboard does away with the large screens typical of modern cars. Instead, there are physical switches for important functions such as the drive mode and small gauge-style displays showing the sat-nav, wheel travel and an inclinometer. The car’s speed, remaining range and time are shown on a pod of three smaller dials in front of the driver. This design is said to focus the driver’s attention on the road ahead, rather than any interior accoutrements.
Chunky grab handles are mounted to the centre console – echoing a similar feature in the Defender – and the same motif is mirrored for the rear passengers.
