Hankook Tire had three winning entries in the 2019 iF Design Awards in the categories of Professional Concept and Product.
The three winning products are concept tires—Hexonic and HLS-23—and a passenger car tire, the Kinergy 4S 2. Hexonic and HLS-23 were designed through Hankook Tire’s research and development project “Design Innovation,” which proposes new ideas for future driving. The tires were developed through collaborative research with students from the Royal College of Art (RCA).
Hexonic is a tire for fully-autonomous car sharing that provides optimized driving solutions with smart sensors. The HLS-23 guarantees sustainable future logistics transportation through road-coordinate recognition and self-charging.
Kinergy 4S 2, the winner in the product discipline, is an all-season tire suitable for both summer and winter road conditions, equipped with improved drainage performance by applying a symmetrical V-shaped pattern. Inspired by a ski plate and a waterwheel, the tire induces drainage and improves stability. Two different summer and winter sipes were applied to satisfy both brake performance on snowy roads and handling performance on dry roads.
In 2009, Hankook Tire won the iF Design Award for the first time in the tire industry with its Optimo 4S. With the honor of Kinergy 4S 2 and the Kinergy 4S in 2014, all of the previous models of Kinergy 4S have attained successive achievements, proving the excellence of Hankook Tire’s all-season tire design.
“It’s an honor to be awarded the iF Design Award,” Hankook Tire President and CEO Hyun Bum Cho said. “We set out to create the most practical yet attractive tire design and are proud to be recognized by one of the world’s most prestigious design awards.” He added, “Hankook Tire will continue its commitment to building the most innovative high-performance products.”
The iF Design Award is presented by the International Forum Design, a German marketing consulting firm, and it is one of the top three most reputable international design awards along with the Reddot Design Award and the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA).
