New Genesis electric cars push brand to sales record

A trio of EV arrivals in September are expected to help emerging Korean luxury brand Genesis top 1000 sales in Australia for the first time in 2022.

Genesis only launched as a stand-alone brand in Australia in 2019 and has steadily increased sales despite fixed pricing and only a handful of factory-owned display and test drive centres based almost exclusively on the east coast.

The all-electric Genesis GV60 compact SUV and the battery-electric version of the Genesis G80 large sedan are in showrooms now, while the electric Genesis GV70 medium SUV also arrives this month.

To the end of August, Genesis had sold 541 vehicles in Australia, which annualises out to a little over 800 sales, which would top the record set in 2021 of 734 sales.

But the head of Genesis Australia Connal Yan forecast about 150 sales for the GV60 in 2022 as a cornerstone of the drive to 1000 sales.

“If we can get what we want [in terms of vehicle supply], what we ask for, we will reach 1000 and more,” he predicted.

“It will be a good benchmark, a good little success.”

Yan said the rise in interest in the brand now placed it level in buyer awareness with the likes of Jaguar and Alfa Romeo.

“We are very much on a level with other niche brands in the luxury space,” he said. “I believe that is where we sit and we will only further increase from where we stand at the moment.”

Yan forecast “healthy” growth for Genesis beyond 2022 without offering numbers. But the Hyundai Motor Group luxury brand’s product rush will slow a little for a while.

While carsales understands there are facelifts and overhauls of existing Genesis lines coming – most notably the G70 and GV80 foundation models – the brand is not expected to expand into a new product line until a large three-row electric crossover arrives about 2025.

This vehicle will share its E-GMP EV architecture with the forthcoming Hyundai IONIQ 7 and Kia EV9 large SUVs.

The GV60 is the first Genesis stand-alone EV and the only one to be based on E-GMP.

But there seems less prospect of a production version of the X Speedium Coupe electric concept currently on display in Australia.

“There is no confirmation at the moment,” said Yan.

“But I would seriously consider [if a production version was confirmed] because it’s nice to have as a top of the brand brand-shaper.”

Longer term, Genesis has globally committed to launching no new internal combustion product lines after 2025 and intends to be all-electric through a combination of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) by 2030.

Yan would not speculate on whether Genesis would keep internal combustion engines (ICE) in its local line-up all the way out to the end of global production in 2030.

“It depends on the demand,” he said. “If customers starting from to tomorrow say, ‘We only want EVs’ then we have to adjust our plan to fit the market.

“The market is driven by a lot of factors: how fast the infrastructure would be developing; what government policies would be releasing. All these things would contribute to the market changing.”

Nor was he prepared to commit to local sale of FCEVs – a technological avenue the Hyundai Motor Group is working hard to develop.

“Whatever our headquarters release we will always conduct a very detailed analysis, considering local market demand and everything,” he said.

While the Genesis product rush will slow down at least temporarily in 2023, it has committed to a hardware upgrade of its test drive centres in line with current Genesis global designs.

Genesis Australia has studios in Sydney and Melbourne where the range can be viewed, and test drive centres in Sydney, the Gold Coast and a newly established outlet in Perth where they can be sampled.

It is also about to open tests drive centres in Melbourne and Brisbane, and home delivers cars for road tests in some locations.

“The studios are staying as they are but the test drive centres are gaining a hardware upgrade,” explained Yan.

Essentially, the Australian test drive centres are being updated to the latest design format approved by global HQ. The upgrade has already been introduced in China, the US and China.

Yan said the new design improved the customer experience including the way the cars would be presented to potential buyers.

“All these experiences contribute to the overall experience,” he said.