The market for electric cars has become more competitive than ever – especially on the premium scale. No pressure then for the peculiar Genesis GV70 Electrified.
For starters, it’s a rather handsome thing. The suave lines and curvature give it the impression that it was penned by a passionate car designer. And that’s because it was. Genesis' design team is led by Luc Donckerwolke, who gave us the Lamborghini Murcielago. However, the impressive design is impacted by the questionable name of ‘Electrified’.
I was informed that the name will eventually be phased out as the whole Genesis range will be fully electric by 2025, but it’s nothing short of an unusual decision. This car may have a silly name, but there is nothing silly about the way it performs.
Once you press ‘boost’ mode at the bottom of the steering wheel, it churns out more power than a Ferrari F40. Every mad, exotic thing you associated with the 80s supercar is suddenly surpassed by a Korean family SUV. Whilst that is the case for a lot of new cars these days, it’s still baffling to get your head around. Even a few weeks after the drive, and it still hasn’t sunk in for me. Put your foot down, and you suddenly get an idea of just how quickly you can go from 0 to the sort of speed that’s comparable to a jet taking off. The thrust this car has when moving down the road is deeply impressive.
It's quick to charge too; on an ultra-rapid 350kW charging station, the batteries will charge from 10-80% in just 18 minutes. On a 50kW one, the same charge takes around an hour. At home on a standard 7.4-22kW system, you're looking at around 7-8 hours.
A major plus point for the GV70 is that it's really nicely put together. Step inside and it feels as plush and expensive as its price point. It starts from £64,000 and the one I had was specced up to just over £78,000. It may be made by Hyundai, which was once the subject of cheap ridicule, but my God does it feel posh. The endless coverings of soft leather and beautifully crafted aluminium switches make it feel almost like a Bentley, which is seriously high praise for a start-up brand.
It’s easy to use as well. The controls and infotainment screen are wonderfully simple to navigate. You don’t even have to stretch your arm in order to access anything you need – meaning that you never have to take your eyes off the road. It’s a fresh relief from other systems that require overly complicated touchscreen interaction. The ‘Sounds of Nature’ feature is a bit gimmicky, but everything else is purely functional – which is a nice relief from some of the over complicatedness from other brands. Even for an analogue being like me, it’s nowhere near difficult to get used to.
Genesis say that you can drive the car effectively by only using one pedal thanks to the regenerative braking system. But once you pull the left paddle, it noticeably slows down, but only in the same way as, say, engine braking on a petrol-powered car. To actively use it as a means of slowing before a tight corner is a real faff. In terms of using the brake pedal itself, there's a distinct lack of feel: you really have to push it far into the footwell for any slowing effect to take place, which is quite annoying especially when in slow moving traffic. A firmer feel would be much preferred.
The worst thing, however, isn’t the brakes. Surprisingly, it’s the way it rides.
I didn’t have the car in sport mode throughout the time I had it. I thought about it initially when setting off, but I gradually learned that it’s best to leave it alone. On normal motorway and dual carriageway environments, it’s fine. The seats are fairly soft, and the suspension behaves smoothly, as you’d expect in a car like this. But on country roads in southern England, the GV70 E may be as fast as a jet, but it also gives you an idea of what it’s like to be in seriously rough mid-air turbulence. The test car was equipped with the larger 20-inch wheels sitting on Michelin Pilot Sport EVs, so you may be better off with the standard 19-inch ones. The test car was woefully bumpy and along single-track country lanes, no matter how carefully you drive, you can never get the car to settle down.
I took the car through various village-y remote areas of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, and it just wasn’t good enough – especially as that’s where I’d expect the clientele of a car like this to live. It’s safe to say that by the end of my drive, I was feeling utterly exhausted. In something like a Lotus, that would’ve been forgivable, but it’s unacceptable for a car like this.
Finally, we have to come back to the price. At £78,000, the GV70 Electrified is indeed competitive against the other electric rivals. I would go as far to say that it’s a much nicer thing than, say, a BMW iX3, Mercedes EQC or Tesla Model Y. But in truth, anyone who has that sort of money to spend on a premium SUV will always look to the next step up.
78 grand is firmly putting this Genesis alongside cars like the BMW X5, Audi Q7 and even a Porsche Cayenne. It’s a really hard car to recommend at that sort of money, given the brand is very new and the competition is stiffer than ever in the SUV segments. There is a really nice car within the GV70 Electrified. I could feel it! But if it had a properly sorted suspension set up and brakes that provided better confidence, it could've be a great one.
Sadly however, that isn't quite the case. Rating: 3.5/5 Words: Aaron Hussain