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home > news > Q&A interviews > Q&A: Karim Habib, Head of Kia Design

Talk about guts; Kia launched the high-performance version of its EV6 GT battery-electric vehicle during Monterey Car Week, a period of seven days usually reserved for launches of limited-edition, six-figure vehicles.

Its stand at The Quail Motorsports Gathering in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California, was next to Pagani. 

Audacious? No doubt. But it reveals the confidence the South Korean automaker has in its products.

TheDetroitBureau.com previously spoke with Karim Habib, senior vice president and head of Kia Design Center in Namyang, Korea, when the EV6 launched in February. Now, with the launch of the GT, we had the chance to talk further about the GT, and Habib’s thoughts on design.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

TheDetroitBureau.com: When you start with an existing vehicle, and you go to the GT version, what’s your first thought on what to do? I mean, obviously, they’re the expected things you might do for a GT variant, but what did you try with this?

Karim Habib: So, we have had a few GTs, and I think in particular, the Stinger GT has been our performance flagship for the last few years. So, you have that short history to work with. What we tried to do was to work with that and bring that into the EV era. It’s really as simple as that. We wanted to find a way to still talk about performance and just the joy, the pleasure of driving, but try to make it relevant or keep it relevant in an EV era.

TDB: The idea of performance really hasn’t changed be it EV or gas. People’s perception of what a GT should be hasn’t changed.

KH: That’s true. But being an EV, we have this greenish, yellowish neon color highlight color inside. We had this super long discussion as to what color it should be. You know, we have red today, and we’re known for red highlights.

But basically, a lot of manufacturers are red. It’s this thing about fire and heat and maybe combustion-engine-era symbolism. So even a small thing like that, we’re tweaking the color to try and symbolize something else. It’s trying to talk to an audience and communicate the same thing, but speak the same values in a different era. 

TDB: Certainly, performance is in eternal, but the performance customer, especially in an EV era where it’s cutting edge, you want something new fresh, almost fashion forward. And yellow is certainly in the color cycle right now. It would almost make sense to do something a bit more outlandish with something like that because it would be perceived as cutting edge.

KH: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing how colors can feel fresh. Obviously, the color palette has been the same for years and years, but even though you’re working let’s say still with the same palette, there’s different technologies or possibilities that come that you can make into something to give it a meaning that feels more modern. And I think in those cases, in the case of what we did with this neon, greenish color, was to try to find something that represents maybe a new type of energy, batteries or electricity, rather than fire and combustion.

TDB: As the as the shape of vehicles change, and performance fans are so traditional in regard to design, is it going to be harder to sort of transmit that sense of performance? 

KH: That’s a good question. I think you can probably answer it differently from different points of view, but that may be from different brands. And I think, you know, for us to do performance, we want to do performance through fun, through pleasure, through enjoyment and not through aggression.

We’re not going to do a car that looks like it’s going to devour the road in front of it. I’m not saying that’s certainly bad, but for us, it just wouldn’t be very credible. So, in that sense, it takes away that possibility, which you can easily associate with performance. So you’re right; it makes it a little more challenging. But I also think it has to do with values. Maybe you want to have that performance car, but you don’t necessarily want it to communicate something too aggressive.

TDB: Kia has always had sort of a friendly persona in the U.S. When you have dancing, rapping hamsters in your advertising, your approach to performance is going to be a bit different. When you look at the EV6 versus the design of its Hyundai sibling, the Ioniq 5, it’s a vastly different message that’s being communicated.

KH: Yeah, it is. It’s true. There’s some kind of sympathy, a kind of accessibility I think is necessary to communicate in our in our designs.

TDB: Given that, did you find making the EV6 into a GT particularly difficult? It’s already a fairly sporty design, so I wouldn’t think that it would be hard to sort of take it a step further.

KH: It was hard, coming from my experience in the past. We decided not to do too much differentiation from the GT-Line to the GT. We wanted it to be a subtle shift, subtly more sporty and more intense in its character. And it’s very, very small things. You know, for example, the vertical reflector rather than a horizontal reflector, or the patterns in the grill. What really helped is the bigger wheels; we have 21-inch wheels on the GT with these really thin spokes. 

TDB: It’s great to see that, rather than the typical EV tire design with large, flat surfaces. It’s hard to make them like anything. They almost look like automotive orthopedic shoes; they just don’t have the sexiness.

KH: I think why most manufacturers’ wheels have black to replace the negative space of the flat wheel.

TDB: You know, Kia was really early on and using the sort of blacked-out C-pillar, and it’s certainly a style that everybody has picked up. Has it become a cliche already?

KH: I still think there’s so many so many paths, we can take down that road, trying to floating roof in different ways. I still find it pretty exciting. I think it buys you more freedom. You can have the A-pillar in black or you can do the C-pillar or the D-pillar in black and then or in body color on the pillar. So you have a bandwidth of possibilities that you can you can you can play with and that I think that’s why we like playing with it.

TDB: Yes, there’s possibilities in design language that allow you freedom in terms of what you can do with body panels, like what you did with the Niro EV, and that that panel down the side. It’s as if the overall form is becoming visually disassembled.

KH: Yes. That’s what it is. 

TDB: So this sort of continuity of form is being pulled apart and disassembled for different dynamic reasons.

KH: Yeah, because the proportions and the masses are changing so much because of the EV era. You know, because of the battery pack, the wheelbase is becoming much longer and we’re trying to create bigger cabins that provide better space for the customers. But they’re design challenges. So, we try to use these graphic tools to break up the mass, as you as you said, and there’s still a lot of experimenting to do still. Some of it works better than others, but that’s part of it.

TDB: The way the EV6’s taillight wraps across the back is such a distinctive characteristic. LED lighting has really opened up a whole new avenue for designers. We’re just starting to see what’s possible.

KH: Yeah, there was a lot of discussion of whether it was too much or was it too unusual. But I do think it’s quite iconic. And you’re right, it’s because the technology now allows it. Imagine if you had to have reflectors with a light bulb behind everything. It just it just wouldn’t work. So yeah, when design and technology come together, that’s when you can make a breakthrough.

TDB: It’s certainly a characteristic of the rear end that you would be tempted to use again and again, and I’m guessing you’re probably not going to. You really give each vehicle its own identity. A Telluride is different from a Sorento which is different from the Soul. They all have a unique personality. It’s not like some automakers that offer the same design in small, medium or large.

KH: I think that’s important for us. We have quite a few models in very different markets. So, we try to find that balance, making sure each car has its own character that fits the needs and wants of our customers.

TDB: Some of the technology and the change in form must have helped creating a two-box design more interesting than it once was.

KH: True. So, on the EV6, it’s really got quite a low, short hood, big wheels and you can say it’s a two box, but it’s maybe two-and-a-half box. It allows us to create some really compelling volumes that we probably wouldn’t have done in the past.

TDB: As cabins grow in size because of EV technology, there will be more expected of interiors. That must be a challenge because so much design has always focused on the outside of the car, and relatively little inside. Now, you got to spend more attention and money inside because there’s all this space to deal with.

KH: Definitely. I mean, that’s been a big, a big thing for us and a big thing for me personally. It’s kind of my learning curve. We’re much more hardcore industrial designers when it comes to interior design. We really try to think about how’s it going to be comfortable for the users in their world? Where do you put them? How do you put them? (What) are we able to (do) because we don’t have a tunnel? Are we able to fit a space where you can actually cool your drinks or using your car as your sleeping quarters during your camping trips? We’re designing things like that, like a little table that you can bring out of the trunk. And I love that stuff. And it’s something that I did not really think about when I started designing and it’s absolutely part of our daily reality today.

TDB: It’s always a pleasure to talk with you about design, and it’s great to see what’s coming. Thank you for your time.

KH: Thank you. 

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