Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Hyundai’s Genesis brand plans electric future with coupe, hatchback

By
1 of 4
Genesis Mint concept
Genesis Mint concept
Genesis Mint concept
Genesis Mint concept

Genesis, the upmarket brand created by Hyundai, shed light on how its range will expand during the 2020s. The company pledged to release three more cars to offer a six-model lineup, and at least two could get electric power.

Recommended Videos

After unveiling the GV80, the company’s first SUV, design boss Luc Donckerwolke showed the crowd an image depicting the silhouette of six cars neatly arranged in a row. Some are already available in showrooms, like the rear-wheel-drive G70 sedan, but the three that caught my eye are the ones Genesis hasn’t shown the final versions of yet.

Related

One silhouette closely resembles the Mint concept (shown above) Genesis introduced at the 2019 New York Auto Show. It takes the form of a small, city-friendly hatchback equipped with funky-looking rear doors and an electric powertrain that offers about 200 miles of driving range. Its 350-kilowatt fast-charging technology tops up the battery quickly, which makes the Mint more road trip-friendly than its range suggests, and its cabin receives six screens plus a seventh one embedded in the steering wheel. It’s unlike any model available in 2020, and that’s exactly what Genesis stylists were aiming for. On a secondary level, it boldly argues the city car segment is far from dead.

1 of 6
Genesis Essentia concept
Genesis Essentia concept
Genesis Essentia concept
Genesis Essentia concept
Genesis Essentia concept
Genesis Essentia concept

Another one of the mysterious silhouettes shows a curvaceous body characterized by a long hood and a sloping roof line. It looks like the Essentia (pictured above), the design study Genesis brought to the 2018 edition of the New York show. The firm quoted a three-second sprint from zero to 60 mph thanks to an electric powertrain made up of multiple electric motors. That’s admittedly vague, but it sounds feasible, especially considering Hyundai has invested a considerable amount of money into Rimac, the Croatian firm looking to electrify the supercar segment.

What’s next? We’ll need to be patient. “I know we would like to see more light on this photo, but for now we will keep the mystery,” Donckerwolke teased during the presentation. Genesis is focusing on the GV80 for the time being.

Looking ahead, the company already announced it will release its first series-produced electric car in 2021. Time will tell whether it’s a high-performance coupe, a fun-sized hatchback, or something else entirely. What’s nearly certain is that we’ll see a second, smaller SUV tentatively called GV70 before Genesis branches out into the EV segment.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon
Contributor
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Mercedes is finally bringing an electric van to the U.S.
Front three quarter view of the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter electric van.

Mercedes-Benz might be known for luxury cars, but it also makes vans, and it's finally bringing an electric van to the United States.

Scheduled to start production this summer, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter is an all-electric version of the Sprinter full-size cargo van that's already a favorite of delivery services like FedEx and Amazon, as well as camper van converters. While the automaker has been selling electric vans in Europe since 2010, the new eSprinter is the first one aimed at the U.S. market.

Read more
Ram EV concept previews truck brand’s electric future
The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept was designed around an electric powertrain.

Electric pickup trucks are a hot trend in the auto industry, and Ram is late to the game. So the truck brand of massive automaker Stellantis needed to work hard to stand out.
Unveiled at CES 2023, the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept shows what Ram has in mind for its first production electric truck, which is scheduled to arrive in 2024. This concept version combines some features we’ve already seen on other electric trucks with a few clever new ideas. So while it may be revolutionary for the Ram brand, which is new to EVs, it’s more evolutionary when compared to other electric pickups.

Unmistakably electric
The Ram 1500 Revolution has the bulky appearance of a traditional truck, but with proportions that clearly mark it as an EV. With no need to accommodate an engine, the hood is much shorter. This allowed designers to make the cabin four inches longer than today’s internal-combustion Ram 1500 without shortening the bed, Ram claims. The grille is also smaller, although Ram compensated for this with a giant light-up logo and headlights with the same “tuning fork” elements as its current gasoline and diesel truck grilles.
The roofline is a bit lower and sleeker, which probably helps with aerodynamics, but like a traditional truck, the Revolution rolls on massive wheels and tires. The 35-inch tires are wrapped around 24-inch wheels with smooth covers and light-up elements. The charge port, meanwhile, is located in the driver’s side front fender. It makes a noise when the truck has started charging and blinks to show that charging is ongoing.
Like rival truck makers, Ram incorporated a frunk where the engine would normally be, plus the RamBox storage bins from its current trucks. Nearly every opening, including the tailgate, frunk, and charge port, is also power-operated.
Underpinning all of this power-operated convenience is the STLA Frame dedicated EV platform, one of four such platforms Stellantis plans to use for future EVs across its many brands, such as Chrysler and Jeep.

Read more
VW previews its next electric car in trippy camouflaged form
Front three quarter view of a camouflaged Volkswagen ID.7 prototype.

The Volkswagen ID.7 is VW's next electric car, and while it won't be fully revealed until later in the year, the automaker provided a sneak peek at CES 2023.

VW said the production ID.7, which will be revealed in the second quarter of this year, will be influenced by the ID.Aero concept first shown in China in 2022. The camouflaged prototype VW brought to CES has the same general shape as the ID.Aero. It's a streamlined sedan that VW claims will have up to 435 miles of range as measured on the somewhat lenient European WLTP testing cycle.

Read more