The Spangly New Genesis G80 Is 110kg Lighter, Develops Up To 370bhp

Remember the Hyundai Genesis? The luxury saloon came to the UK in 2015, was priced quite ambitiously considering its humble badge, and was banished from the UK a few years later after Hyundai only managed to shift 50 on these shores. Each of which suffered from comically bad depreciation.

Times have changed for Hyundai‘s luxury car efforts since then, though. In recognition of the brand not having much cache when it comes to posh cars, Genesis has been spun off as a separate brand, a la Toyota/Lexus. It’s already released two vehicles under the new banner, and the retitled version of the Genesis saloon - the G80 - has just been replaced with an all-new car.

It’s just as long and a smidge wider than the car it replaces, but 110kg lighter thanks partly to 19 per cent of the body made from aluminium. The rear-drive platform it sits on is exclusive to the Genesis brand.

The familial link to the bigger G90 saloon and the GV80 SUV is clear. There’s a huge triangular mesh grille at the front, an Audi A7-like sloping roofline at the back, and - in the spec shown in the reveal images at least - a whole lot of chrome. And just look at those side repeaters! Subtle the G80 is not.

Three powerplants are on the menu - a 2.2-litre, 205bhp diesel (that one won’t be going to the USA), a 2.5-litre, 296bhp turbocharged inline-four, and a 3.5-litre turbo V6 that’s good for 370bhp. There are no 0-60mph figures mentioned, but even with the fat-trimming that’s gone on, the G80 won’t be light - the best we can hope for is the pokiest version to dip under the six-second mark. It doesn’t look like there’ll be a V8 option available this time.

Inside, it’s very 2020. Genesis has deliberately kept physical controls at a minimum to reduce clutter, although you do still get rotary knobs and a bunch of buttons for the climate controls. There’s a 14.5-inch infotainment display poking out of the dashboard, paired with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. There’s a head-up display, too.

Also on the tech front, we have the usual luxury car suite of fancy safety systems including ‘Smart Cruise Control’ (including “world-first” machine learning capability), Highway Driving Assist II which helps with lane-keeping and lane changes, Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist, and Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist.

Orders are open in South Korea now, with availability in other markets beginning in the second-half of 2020 starting with North America. Whether or not it’ll ever make it to the UK, we’re not sure - Hyundai has previously said it wants to bring Genesis to the UK, although we haven’t heard any news on that front in a while.