No halo car for Genesis

Noisy, fast, attention-grabbing cars will not be a part of the future product plan for fledgling Korean prestige car-maker, Genesis.

Instead, the company is hedging its bets on unique design, best-in-class customer service and supreme luxury.

That's the take out from motoring.com.au’s interview with Genesis' global brand boss, Manfred Fitzgerald, who argues that a go-fast hero model and 0-100km/h acceleration are meaningless to its customers.

"If you need a halo vehicle and all that, that's not our spiel," he said.

"I'm not your typical marketing guy. I don’t believe in target groups, I don’t believe in all that. I believe in creating great products. Hopefully there will be many people who love them and that's it," he stated during an interview at the 2017 New York motor show, right after revealing the GV80 concept.

Genesis plans to go toe-to-toe with car brands like Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-AMGs are selling like hot cakes, with annual sales up 44 per cent in 2016, and the company is about to redefine the term "road legal hyper car" with its $3million Project One creation.

BMW and Audi are likewise making big profits from their respective performance brands via their M and RS cars. They both have halo cars too, the BMW i8 and Audi R8. Even Lexus has F Sport and Infiniti is getting in on the game with its own performance models.

But Genesis boss Fitzgerald insists Genesis doesn't need a halo car, the sort of vehicle that gets people in showrooms. He believes high-performance halo cars will cease to have the significance they have today, especially as electric vehicles (EVs) take over.

"Alternative propulsion systems are at the core of this brand. We truly believe in that. If you look at what's happening with electrification, performance will not have that dominant role anymore.

"It's a level playing field – the internal combustion engine's dominance of performance will go away," he opined.

Another senior executive at Genesis, chief designer Luc Donckerwolke confirmed to motoring.com.au that it will build a big gran turismo or GT coupe, but that it won’t be a V8.

But Fitzgerald reckons that straight-line performance – and the bragging rights that go with it – is all academic.

"The electric performance [of future cars] will be somewhat all on par. If you can accelerate to 100km/h in under three seconds it's meaningless. Whether its 2.6 or 2.7sec who cares? Our customer doesn't. That's not going to be your competence anymore.

"To have dynamics, driving and handling, yes -- that comes into play there and you have to show that -- but performance for acceleration and top speed, that's going to be pretty much the same."

So what will Genesis stand for, and how will it find customers without a headline-grabbing halo model vying for go-fast honours?

"So the customer will be compelled by other things -- the brand, the design, connectivity, interior looks. Those will be the future hallmarks of brands," says Fitzgerald.

"We're driven by passionate people and passionate designers. That's at the core of what we do, bringing a new proposition to the table," he said.