Nascent Korean premium brand’s first EV arrives in fast, if not furious, crossover form
You can’t fault the ambition of Genesis. Arriving in Europe barely five years ago, Hyundai’s luxurious flagship brand has ignored the received wisdom that pretenders to the established upmarket order should take it slowly when trying to take a slice of the premium pie. In that short space of time it launched an entire, largely electrified, product line-up that in its technical innovation, quality and kit made up for what it lacked in brand recognition.Adding a certain style to that list of merits was the GV60, a distinctive crossover-cum-coupé that was the brand’s first all-electric offering. Sat on the advanced 800V E-GMP architecture shared with Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, giving it the sort of state-of-the-art EV kudos that could only be rivalled by the far more expensive Porsche Taycan. However, the Genesis has been in showrooms for three years now, so it’s about due this mid-life refresh. Overall sales numbers are still modest by the standards of premium rivals (and Genesis seems unruffled by that, citing quality not quantity as its goal), but the GV60 counts for around a third of its UK registrations, so this is an important facelift.Range at a glanceThe GV60 range is relatively simple: there are three trim levels, and they are tied to the power output. Pure uses a single rear motor, while Sport and Performance have dual motors and all-wheel drive. All versions use the same 84kWh battery pack.ModelPowerGenesis GV60 Pure rwd226bhpGenesis GV60 Sport AWD321bhpGenesis GV60 pERFORMANCE AWD*483bhp*Variant tested for road test performance and efficiency figures is pre-facelift Sport Plus, which is mechanically identical.
