At long last, we’ve finally gotten wind of Genesis’ plan to expand into additional markets - namely, Australia - as the new Hyundai-owned luxury marque takes the fight to combat the establishment German premium cars across even more fronts.
According to Motoring, executives at Hyundai are floating the high probability that Genesis could enter our local market as early as April or May, with the 3 Series-rivalling G70 and larger G80 saloons to kick off the line-up.
Hyundai’s chief operating officer, Scott Grant, told the reporters: “We’re hopeful in the next month or so we might get a final agreement and move forward with launching the G80 and G70.” This was then reportedly corroborated by Bill Thomas of Hyundai Australia, who told Motoring that: “it’s very likely to be a second-quarter launch for the Genesis brand, around April-May.”
This move would be following some impressive sales numbers and very warm reception to the cars like the i30 N and, to a lesser extent, the Stinger GT from sister company Kia, both being sold at prices higher than that of the average model from the respective brand.
The smaller G70 is expected, naturally, to be the more popular of the two Genesis models available upon its market entry. It’s unclear how wide selection of variants will be, but if it follows the car’s initial announcement, things should start with a 2.0-litre Theta II turbocharged four-cylinder petrol mill that generates 185kW and 353Nm.
There’s also the 3.3-litre Gamma twin-turbo V6 unit with 272kW and 510Nm in the G70 Sport which, interestingly, is quoted to reach 100km/h 0.2s quicker than the Kia Stinger with an identical engine, easily giving cars like the BMW 340i and Audi S4 a run for their money in pure performance.
Both engines are mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission, which should also be said about the third engine option for the G70: a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel with 148kW and 441Nm. Given how diesel saloons are still quite popular in certain major European markets, this configuration is crucial to Genesis making a dent there, though it remains unclear whether they’ll be introducing all three options here.
