2025 Seoul Mobility Show report: all that's new and notable

The atmosphere in central Seoul around Gwanghwamun Square in early April was certainly lively, as South Korean citizens awaited their Constitutional Court’s decision on whether to uphold the president’s impeachment on Friday 4th (the Court did, and unanimously so).

On the same date, those seeking distraction from the drama could alternatively visit the first public day of the 2025 Seoul Mobility Show at Kintex, the Korea International Exhibition Center, to the north-west of the city. Celebrating its 30th birthday in 2025 (and running until 13 April), this year’s biennial event hosted world-first unveils from local carmakers Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, plus regional reveals from global exhibitors BMW, BYD, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

The show was rebranded from the Seoul Motor Show in 2021, with the aim of drawing in a wider audience and product offering. When Wallpaper* snuck in a day early for the press preview, we found innovative transport of all shapes and sizes. From hydrogen-powered cars to hubless electric bikes and autonomous pods, here is our curated edit.

Highlights from 2025 Seoul Mobility Show

Hyundai Nexo

The importance of Hyundai in South Korea is huge. The various wings of the business make everything from passenger cars – including under its own brand, plus sister marques Kia and Genesis – to giant earth diggers and more. Predictably, the local corporation-turned-global powerhouse went large at the Seoul Mobility Show, and arguably its most significant design was the second-generation Nexo hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV).

Targeting a 435-mile range from a five-minute refuel, the production vehicle may be niche, mainly due to the current lack of global hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, but Hyundai is still seeking 11,000 annual sales worldwide. More significant is the car’s heralding of a wider new exterior design direction, which Hyundai is calling ‘Art of Steel’. Based closely on the late 2024 Initium concept, expect future designs across the whole Hyundai range to visually reflect the strength and malleability of the metal in a variety of incarnations, while still anchored to the brand’s use of pixel graphics in its front faces and rear lights.

Hyundai.com

Hyundai Ioniq 6

Another significant unveil – and one more relevant to a wider buying public – was the new Ioniq 6 full-electric saloon. Majorly updated from the first generation, only put into production in 2022, the biggest changes are to its exterior. The front lights have been greatly reduced in size and complexity to just four pixels on each side, and at the rear, one larger ‘ducktail-style’ spoiler now replaces the two previous smaller spoilers. The net result is a visual lengthening and cleaning up of the already elegant ‘streamliner’ silhouette of the 2022 model. Technically only a facelift, with some small changes to the interior too, the exterior visual transformation is nonetheless impressive up close, especially for those who appreciate ‘less is more’ vehicle design.

A sportier Ioniq N Line model was also launched in Seoul, with a red exterior, and visually differentiates itself through gloss-black lower cladding that sweeps back and dramatically upwards to nestle under the single rear spoiler to enhance the go-faster vibe. Those seeking an actually go-faster Ioniq 6 won’t have to wait long either. The N version promises boosted performance, ride and handling, plus digital sonic pops, bangs to enhance the electric driving experience to a more petrol engine-like feeling and sound – in the manner of the already well-received Ioniq 5 N. Expect the 6 N to be unveiled at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed in just a few months’ time.

Hyundai.com

Hyundai Insteroid

Wildly different again from Hyundai in Seoul was the Insteroid concept car. With a brief to make a vehicle that would engage the younger generation, the result is a slammed and widened Inster EV (known as the Casper in Korea) with a stripped-out and customisable interior. The dinky city car underpinnings are almost lost in the ‘Insteroidal’ transition, and there is no stated production intent for the concept, but the car can be driven in virtual form now as an option within the KartRider video game (think Korean Mario Kart).

As Nicola Danza, Hyundai Europe’s exterior design manager told Wallpaper*: 'We keep hearing the young generation don’t want to buy cars. That’s partly true, but I think the main problem is that there’s not a car by them, for them. So we took some of our young new designers – luckily not yet polluted by production problems – and just said, “What would you have as a dream car for yourself?” And they were like, “OK, we want a small car but also want it to be fun. They like gaming and the digital world, so combined the two things and came up with the Insteroid.'

Hyundai.com

Genesis X Gran Coupe and Convertible

Hyundai Motor Group’s luxury brand Genesis has been quietly developing a small foothold in the upmarket car market over the last decade through the strong direction of ex-Bentley designers Luc Donckerwolke and SangYup Lee. The latest concepts unveiled in Seoul, based on the G90 production model – respectively the X Gran Coupe and Convertible – reflect that experience and attention to proportion, quality and detail. Impressive? Absolutely, but the brand needs to put a few of these well-realised ideas into production more quickly and, longer-term, make the marque stand further apart from its inspirations.

Genesis.com

Kia PV5

Kia's latest offerings were first shown at its own ‘Kia EV Day’ in February 2025 in Tarragona, Spain, but the Seoul Mobility Show was nonetheless a good moment for the wider public to see them. The key product on the stand may have been an all-electric van – a new segment for Kia – but there were also camper van-style passenger variants.

In addition, there was a collaboration with fellow Korean electronics powerhouse LG, showing how the PV5’s rear cabin could be transformed, plus versions optimised for wheelchair users too, in keeping with the show’s recent wider and more inclusive mobility focus. The PV5 goes on sale in the second half of 2025 in Korea and Europe, with other markets to follow.

Kia.com

Top Secret Hubless e-bike

A Korean-made two-wheeled transport option that caught our eye at the show was the Top Secret e-bike, featuring a titanium and aluminium main frame and striking hubless wheels with airless tyres. The 48V 500W motor is restricted to 15mph and good for 80 miles of range but alas, the e-bike is currently only available for pre-order, with a $10,000 estimated retail price for an as yet undefined launch date. After which, logically, it should become less ‘top secret’.

TopSecretBike.com

Pix Moving Robobus

Autonomous shuttle pods have been envisioned, designed and in some cases actually delivered to various forward-thinking global cities as a safer, greener and potentially more accessible type of localised public transport for some years now. But they don’t come cheap, due in no small part to the significant sensors and tech that allow such driverless movement.

The compact sub-4m-long Pix Moving Robobus pod shown in Seoul – on the stand of its software provider Treeze – can carry up to six passengers and travel 60 miles before a recharge, but currently costs circa $500,000-600,000. However, engineers are working hard to integrate less expensive cameras that could soon replace pricey Lidar units and work as well, with a target price per pod by 2028 of $100,000. Still not a bargain compared to many private cars, but perhaps a fair enough price for more local councils and other municipal bodies to buy in and then coax citizens into this more high-tech shareable transport system.

PixMoving.com

2025 Seoul Mobility Show runs 4-13 April, MobilityShow.or.kr