Genesis has unveiled the GV90, a full-size electric SUV with 490 kW, a 123.5 kWh battery and pillarless coach doors on the Neolun version. It goes on sale in the United States early next year, and the announcement says nothing about Europe.
Genesis has revealed the biggest and most expensive thing it has ever built. The GV90 is a full-size electric SUV with 490 kilowatts, 800 Newton metres and a 123.5 kWh battery, shown in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The engineering is not modest. Genesis quotes around 500 km of range from its own testing, a 10 to 80% charge in 22 minutes on a 350 kW charger, air suspension and rear-wheel steering.
The showpiece is the doors. The Neolun version has coach doors and no B-pillar, which the company says required a new body structure to keep crash performance intact.
Where it goes on sale is the more revealing detail. The GV90 will be built at a new plant in Ulsan and reaches American showrooms early next year, taking the brand’s US range to seven cars.
Europe does not appear in the announcement at all. Genesis’s press materials cover the platform, the wood floor and the executive seating, and say nothing about whether the flagship will be sold on the continent.
The sales figures explain the silence. Genesis sold 82,331 cars in the United States last year against 2,476 in Europe, where volumes fell 6.7% as Chinese brands took a record share of the market.
Analysts have been unkind about the European operation. One told Forbes the brand “may as well pack up and go now,” while another argued Genesis should simply concentrate on the United States.
The company has been quietly rebuilding its European approach instead. It is moving from its dealership-free concierge model towards shared showrooms with Hyundai and Kia, and adding hybrids and range extenders after planning to sell only electric cars.
The segment the GV90 would enter here is unforgiving. It would arrive against the Mercedes EQS SUV and a facelifted BMW i7, in a luxury market where German residual values are the product.
The American picture is not simple either. EV sales there have slowed since the $7,500 federal credit ended, and Genesis declined to say whether the GV90 will also be offered as a hybrid or a petrol car.
So the flagship shows what the brand can build, and the figures show where it can sell. Those are two different maps, and only one of them currently includes Europe.
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