Thanks to one of our South Korean readers, we’ve caught our first glimpse of the interior of Hyundai’s all-new, third generation Equus luxury sedan.

Spotted on the streets of the Ulsan Metropolitan City, the silver-colored prototype had its business end – aka the dashboard – fully covered, but its party end – aka the rear passenger area – completely undisguised.

As with the current car, the next, 2017 Equus will offer two different configurations for the rear. The base one seen here has a three-passenger bench that includes a retractable center armrest packed with buttons and knobs controlling the dedicated audio and heating systems.

For jetsetters, there will be an even more lavish setup with two individual thrones featuring one or two retractable footrests separated by a center console that will include a refrigerator and a display screen – things you don’t normally associate with Hyundai, but with brands of the likes of Mercedes-Benz and up.

On the outside, the car captured here is wearing a little less camouflage than previous testers, so we get a better look at its face that blends styling characteristics from the latest Genesis, including the chrome grille, and Hyundai’s Vision G Concept, such as the shape of the headlamps, with the latter also providing an indication of the profile lines.

The next Equus luxury sedan rides on stretched version of the Genesis Mk2’s platform featuring a new multi-link rear suspension fine-tuned by Lotus, with power to come from the same 5.0-liter V8 engine used on the existing model, however, this time, Hyundai will offer the important option of all-wheel drive. Company execs have said that the absence of this option on the current Equus hurt its sales, as 85 percent of luxury cars sold in the Snowbelt regions such as New York City and Boston are fitted with all-wheel drive. On the other hand, Hyundai only sold about 3,400 Equus sedans last year and even less in 2015 at 1,730 through September (vs. 2,596 in September of 2014), so even if an AWD version was available, it probably wouldn’t have really made a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Perhaps the new model that has been designed from the get-go to visually appeal to an international crowd smitten by cars like the Lexus LS and even the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, instead of the current vehicle that was made to (primarily) cater to the needs of Korean buyers, can finally crack the market. We’ll soon find out as the next Equus is scheduled for release in 2016, with a possible world premiere at the New York Auto Show in April.

Many thanks to our reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, for the scoop!

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