Watch Out Ford Bronco, Jeep Recon? Hyundai Crater SUV Concept Takes XRT Extreme

MotorTrend

We go inside Hyundai's Southern California design studio to discover the Crater concept—a high-riding SUV purpose-built for off-roading.    With the Crater

Transcript

00:00Off-road driving has become much more popular in recent years and we are here today in Hyundai's

00:05XRT specific design studio. The automaker has experimented with different trim levels and

00:11features under the XRT sub-brand, but we're here today to take a look at this, the crater concept,

00:15which is Hyundai's most extreme off-road concept yet. Let's take a closer look.

00:19The crater looks wild, there's no doubt about it, and it introduces and emphasizes Hyundai's

00:29forthcoming Artlook steel design energies, which has this really deep draw form factor that's pushing

00:35steel to the limit in the stamping process to have these broad shoulders and deep creases to

00:40emphasize the vehicle's aggressive look. It's actually a compact. I know it looks big and

00:45chunky, it's rolling on 33-inch tires, but dimensionally it's about the same size as the

00:50Santa Fe, so it's not that huge. In terms of its off-road performance, the crater spans the breadth.

00:56A bit of rock crawling, a bit of high-speed desert running, and some overlanding. Wherever your sense

01:01for adventure takes you, the crater wants to get you there. This concept has some pretty extreme

01:06off-road equipment. Like I said, 33-inch tires, branch bars on the hood to clear brush out of

01:12the way if you're driving through deep forests, light bars all over the place. These pixels all around

01:17are an evolution of what we've seen on IONIQ models previously, and that is another emphasis of the

01:23art steel design language that Hyundai is developing and we'll see in future models.

01:27Hyundai wants its concepts to indicate what production vehicles will look like,

01:31and its concepts over the last few years are evidence of that. One little hint of that is

01:37this pixel camo trim that's all around the bottom of the vehicle, like we've seen on the IONIQ 5 XRT.

01:42Expect to see that if and when if the crater comes to production in the next few years.

01:46All right, so here inside the crater concept, you can see that it's quite a focused space with a new

01:56introduction of a split form where elements that you touch like the steering wheel and seats are

02:01intended come for comfort, yet the knobs and dials have a really thick, chunky, almost gear-like feel.

02:06There's a lot of tactility, allowing you to keep your eyes on the road or trail as you're driving along.

02:11Something else you'll notice on the inside of the crater concept is there's quite a reduction of the big

02:16touch screens that you've seen in Hyundai's of past. These little pods here are the only screens

02:22that you have and in a production version those might even be removable, reconfigurable, so you

02:27can add different functions or even add your own device so you have a more familiar interface there.

02:32In this concept that we have two really cool full width head-up displays that are super bright and

02:37colorful that have a lot of different functionality like camp mode, music mode, gaming mode, allowing

02:42you to play with the vehicle and set it up how you like depending on what you're doing with it.

02:46So I want to introduce you to Creator Man which is a bit of a character that Hyundai created to

02:52emphasize the crater concept. It's this little face kind of looks like a skull with gnashing teeth

02:57and it's hidden in easter eggs all around the vehicle. I'll point some of those out to you.

03:01So there's one right here on the end of the center console at this tunnel. There's one on the door opener

03:07and if you come over here to the outside right down here on the toe hook it is a Creator Man and his

03:12teeth also double as a bottle opener so you can enjoy a cold beverage when you get to your campsite.

03:26So Hyundai is a Korean brand of course but it has deep roots in California and this design center

03:30that we're in has been here for many years and what they are doing with the XRT brand here is bringing

03:36some of that California spirit into vehicles like we see with the crater. This is outdoor equipment

03:41that hikers and skiers and bikers love and the crater is designed for those outdoorsy folks. It really

03:47emphasizes an active lifestyle where you can bring accessories from the outside world into the crater

03:52and then take it deep into the distance, up into the mountains, down to the beach, wherever you like

03:57to explore. The crater is created for it. Hyundai will show the crater concept at this year's Los

04:04Angeles Auto Show. If and when a production crater might exist in the real world remains to be seen

04:10but until that for the fall story head to MotorTrend.com

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