Hankook Tire & Technology has won the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2021 for its HPS (Hankook Platform System)-Cell, a solution proposed by Hankook at its Design Innovation project and named as the ‘Red Dot’ in the Mobility and Transportation category.

HPS-Cell is a modular platform, based on tire technology, which Hankook believes to be the foundation of mobility.

The HPS-Cell was an outcome of Hankook Tire’s ‘Design Innovation Project;’ a research project on smart cities and future mobility.

Through joint research, the project puts forward a vision for future driving and solutions that tackle today’s challenges.

The Design Innovation 2020 project, under the theme ‘Urban Reshaping,’ visualized the transformation of cities, geared by mobility and reconfigured as part of living spaces, rather than stand-alone vehicles.

The concepts support a future where augmented automation infrastructure and cutting-edge technologies, such as eco-friendly technology, autonomous driving and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are to be adopted.

HPS-Cell Project

The project outcomes, including HPS-Cell, were unveiled in November 2020.

The tire of HPS-Cell is airless and features a unit-cell structure. It uses sensor technology to not only identify tire treads and road conditions in real-time but also respond to wear-out risks.

As well as change tread patterns according to the road condition, utilizing variable wheels and optimized infrastructure.

It’s applied with ‘Hankook Innovative Performance (H.I.P),’ which represents Hankook’s technological breakthroughs.

By winning the Red Dot Award, in addition to having received the iF Design Award 2021 in the Professional Concept category, the HPS-Cell has received two out of three of the most globally renowned design awards, which refer to Red Dot Award, iF Design Award and International Design Excellence Award (IDEA).

“We are honoured to receive the Red Dot Design Award once again. Hankook Tire’s innovative products have had achieved significant accomplishments in Red Dot Design Award history,” says Jimmy Kwon, Vice President of Hankook Tire’s Brand Lab.

“We are especially glad to be recognized for our Design Innovation project work, as it displays challenge, spirit and the innovative DNA of the company. This recognition demonstrates our design leadership in the industry, as well as our vision for future mobility.”

The Red Dot Design Award is given out each year to industry leaders who have designed the best and most innovative products of the year.