Hyundai’s standalone premium brand is about to get a lot more… angular, having hired Filippo Perini to head-up its European ‘Advanced Design Studio’.

Perini began his career at Alfa Romeo, where he stayed from 1995 until 2002. Towards the end of his time there he worked on the 159 and the 8C Concept. Then he was a senior designer at Audi for a year before moving to Lamborghini, where, in 2006, he was appointed Head of Design. He remained in that position for no less than ten years, overseeing the creation of such cars as the Aventador, Huracan, Reventon and so-on.

Since he left Lambo Perini has been head of design at ItalDesign, which in the last couple of years has given us the Lambo-based Zerouno and Nissan GT-R50 among others. Not a bad CV, that.

Perini joins big names like Manfred Fitzgerald (former director of brand and design at Lamborghini), Luc Donckerwolke (former design director of Bentley, Lambo and Audi) and Albert Biermann (former head of BMW’s M division) at the titan that is Hyundai Motor Group, of which Genesis is a part along with Kia.

Donckerwolke, the Group’s Chief Design Officer, said: “Filippo’s vast experience with European luxury brands makes him an ideal fit to lead the Genesis Advanced Design Studio, and his insight will be instrumental for the development of each of our upcoming projects including both advanced and production designs.”

Genesis doesn’t sell cars in Europe… yet. But it may arrive sometime in the near future, perhaps as early as next year. The company does well in the States, where sales are growing (by 38 per cent in the first half of this year) and many prestigious awards have been won.

We’ve had a go in the 3 Series-sized G70. Spoiler alert: we quite liked it.

STORY Tom Harrison