Hyundai California Design concepts
Concept Car
The Hyundai California Design (HCD) concept vehicles were designed at the Hyundai Motor Company's California studio for the North American market. The first concept vehicle, the HCD-1, was a targa-top sports car aimed at the Mazda Miata, and was unveiled in 1992, but was never produced. Other HCD-branded concepts have previewed production models; for example, the HCD-14 Genesis was a large sedan which eventually reached production as the second-generation Hyundai Genesis.
Studio history
After moving its national headquarters from Garden Grove to Fountain Valley, California, Hyundai opened its California Design Center there in 1990. The studio was later renamed to the Hyundai Design and Technical Center when it moved from Fountain Valley to its current location at Irvine in January 2003. The studio is currently named the Hyundai California Design & Research Center.
Models
Similar Hyundai concept vehicles have been unveiled under analogous names, including the HED-x series (designed by the Hyundai Europe Design studio in Rüsselsheim am Main, Germany; HED-1 was unveiled at the 2005 Geneva show) and the HND-x series (designed at Hyundai Design and Technical studios in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi (formerly Namyang), South Korea). In 2006, Hyundai began adding names to the alphanumeric designators for its concept vehicles, and after 2015, Hyundai has dropped the alphanumeric designator entirely.
HCD-1
The Hyundai HCD-1 (sometimes styled with Roman numerals as HCD-I) debuted at the North American International Auto Show in January 1992 as the first vehicle styled by the California studio. The HCD-1 was equipped with a 2.0L dual overhead cam I4 engine with variable timing and a claimed 150 hp (110 kW).
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