Genesis readies seven more EVs by 2030

Genesis is primed to launch a wave of bespoke electric cars in the wake of the new GV60 crossover as it strives to establish itself as a stand-alone luxury brand.

The Hyundai-owned firm plans to introduce its final combustion-engined model in 2025 and will usher in a family of eight bespoke EVs atop its parent company’s dedicated E-GMP platform, replacing its first-generation models over the course of this decade.

The brand’s chief creative officer, Luc Donckerwolke, told Autocar that the imminent GV60 serves as “a taste of things to come” from the seven EVs that will follow it onto market.

Asked whether Genesis’s new bespoke EVs will directly succeed its current petrol and diesel cars, Donckerwolke said the range won’t be so concretely defined by their physical footprints, but rather their interior proportions.

“Due to the platforms, the cars will have generally longer wheelbases and more space inside the vehicle, so you won’t be able to compare them one to one,” he said.

He highlighted that the GV60’s cabin is larger than is customary for an ICE car of similar size and that, in the future, flat-floored platforms will “have a scale-up effect” on the brand’s models.

As a result, the all-electric successor to the current Genesis GV80 large SUV (imagined above by Autocar) will be larger inside, but not necessarily in terms of its footprint.

It is expected to use the same extended-wheelbase variant of the E-GMP platform as the production versions of the recent Hyundai Seven and Kia EV9 SUV concepts, which lines it up as a rival to electric SUV flagships from established premium brands such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Donckerwolke wouldn’t be drawn on the nature of a halo model for this EV roll-out, but a production version of last year’s X concept, which was posited as a “high-performance GT”, could be brought to market as a rival to the Porsche Taycan, using the E-GMP platform’s most potent motor configurations.

He did suggest that Genesis EVs wouldn’t follow Kia and Hyundai’s new naming strategy, however. Donckerwolke said dropping the existing ‘G’ and ‘GV’ prefixes would be like “Coca-Cola deciding to only sell Light products rather than the originals. Then every product is called Light.”