The automotive world from Europe to Japan to Detroit had better not be caught resting, because Korea is coming for their lunch money. With grandiose and bold designs like the upcoming Tucson, Hyundai is proving that it’s out for blood in the compact utility segment. The visuals here are just teasers, but with big design features like the Saab-esque rear lights and sharp front LEDs, this thing is bound to look out of the ordinary.

The new Tucson won’t be officially unveiled until September 15th, but these dimly-lit teasers actually show us quite a lot of what to expect. Taking the bold and sharp lines of the new Elantra, Hyundai is continuing with this design theme that it calls “Sensuous Sportiness”. Whatever lame thing they call it, it worked really well on the Elantra and should translate well to this larger canvas.

The new Tucson will be bigger and wider than the car it replaces, which has been a common theme with all nameplates going back to the 1980s. Hyundai says it will feature a longer hood and shorter overhangs on a longer wheelbase to provide a “coupé-like character” which is fine as long as they don’t drop the “-like”.

Perhaps even more interesting than the exterior is the brand new interior, which Hyundai is calling (all caps) INTERSPACE. It’s a minimalist take on the interior design that apes many upscale manufacturers. With a nicely split “dual cockpit” layout, the Tucson has a big honkin’ screen in the middle of the center stack for you to fiddle with, and a nice recessed gauge display in a low cowl. The ridge of the dash continues across the top of the door to give a nice seamless connected look to the interior.

This is an impressive departure from Hyundai’s traditional design, and should do well for the company. I suspect we’ll see a lot of these on the road very soon.