OK, so I had a test drive of a Genesis GV60 for around 90 minutes on Wednesday. The GV60 is a full battery EV. The car was brought to my house by the regional (East Anglia) rep. It was what's called the Sport Plus trim in the UK, ie the max power 4WD version (0-62 ca 4.0 sec). My test car was in what's called Himalayan Grey (a dark grey, which may be called Carbon Metal in some markets) and with the white interior. (Picture above is a stock photo - not my test car)
Genesis may be an unfamiliar brand in the UK but it is the premium brand of Hyundai, much as Lexus is to Toyota. So the GV60 is a sister car to eg the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6 and shares much of the same underpinnings and EV drivetrain etc. Unusually, it is a little smaller than its two sister cars coming in at around 4.5m (which is a size I personally like). It would be a direct competitor to the Audi Q4 though performance of the GV60 is distinctly better. for the high-end trim. There are 3 main trims in the UK: Premium (which bizarrely is the base trim and is RWD only); Sport (4WD); and Sport Plus as sport but with more power). Prices cover quite a broad range from ca £45K to £75K depending obviously on trim and options. I haven't tried cross-comparing in detail but suspect that this isn't too dissimilar to the Q4.
As with its two sister cars, the GV60 has an 800v architecture, which means that on a suitable charger (eg at a GridServe location) it can do 10-80% charge in a quoted 18 minutes.
I tested it on mostly local roads rather than high-speed motorways because that's where I do most driving and the quality of local roads around where I live is poor because it's fen country and the road surface is very prone to frequent subsidence, giving many ripples and undulations that are difficult to spot in advance. So checking the ride quality on such roads was important.
Basically, the car was everything that I anticipated - comfortable, spacious and quick. I had been thinking of opting for the middle Sport model because it has 20" wheels as standard rather than the 21" and so I was thinking that the 20" might give a better ride around here, but actually the 21" wheels gave a perfectly acceptable ride. (The car did have the Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) or whatever Genesis call it.) So the ride was perhaps somewhat on the firm side, but comparable to my present Q3 45TFSI and so reasonably acceptable. The car also seemed very quiet on the road.
Seats were the Comfort option (so every conceivable seat option, including cooling & massage, with the seat bolsters tightening automatically in Sport mode and (I think) a little more when selecting the boost button - 10 secs of extra power) and were excellent, at least over the duration of my test drive. Cabin was well-appointed and spacious. Only slight demerit was that the boot/trunk didn't seem especially big; I'd say that the rear seat space and legroom has been prioritised at the expense of boot space. And the hatch roofline does rather swoop down - it's definitely a Sportback rather than regular in Q3 terms, so limiting height near the hatch. This isn't a big deal for me, but might be for anyone needing a lot of boot space.
I didn't take to the white interior and especially to the white steering wheel and boot walls (which I think could mark up quite quickly), but that's maybe just me. I wish there was a dark grey interior option, but there isn't. My test car didn't have a sunroof, but I would definitely spec one with an all-black interior.
The style of the big main displays I won't comment on much because this is very much down to personal preferences and taste. I would say definitely a premium finish, albeit perhaps with too much silvery metallic looking buttons (though not on the scale of some Merc dashes). I probably would have preferred something subtler (eg a Volvo interior) but I know that's not usually the Asian way. But suspect that I would be perfectly happy living with the interior (but with black trim).
My car did have the camera side mirrors. Difficult to comment on these TBH. On an initial drive, you are of course always looking in the wrong place (ie at the camera outside rather than the display on the inside of each door). I suspect that you would quickly adapt, but if you often also drive a car with 'conventional' mirrors as well then switching from one to the other might be more troublesome. It's an option I won't be ordering!
There are so many features and switches in a modern premium car that I didn't even try to check out what they all did, what all the display configurations might have been etc, beyond those that I actually needed for driving. (I was more interested in how the car drove out on the road than familiarising myself with all the features.) But I'm sure that they would all become pretty familiar within a few days of owning the car. The HUD was good and clear. The only slight downside is that there's no local dealer at all with a demo car that I can just go and sit in and play eg with the display controls. (To repeat, distribution is the UK is all done centrally and not through dealers.)
Performance was excellent as one might expect for a powerful modern EV., perhaps on a par with RSQ3 up to 70-80mph, though I'm sure the RS would pull away after that, but I haven't seen any direct comparison figures yet The boost button is actually quite powerful and induces some significant torque steer if you activate it during a manoeuvre like overtaking so that's something to be wary of. But I'm sure that one would quickly adjust to that. I had the regen on max throughout and I found that fine for 1-pedal type driving - quite easy to use without throwing the passengers around too much.
In fact the boost button is tempting me towards te Sport Plus rather than plain Sport (it's only available with the Plus trim). OK, it's fun. But there's also another reason: one of my concerns in moving from a fossil car to a full EV is the lack of interaction with the car other than steering and power/braking control - it's sort of losing a skill-set which I wonder if I might miss using? But the boost button just gives a small element of extra control back to the driver.
The one big negative for me is that there's no wireless Apple Carplay available - it is cabled only. I've got used to having wireless and while the cable isn't a huge deal, it does rather feel like stepping back in time. That said, no car is perfect.
The other thing to bitch about in the UK is that the standard seats have no heated seats option other than going for the full comfort seats, which is $$$.
Sales are still telling me to expect delivery of a factory order in 4-5 months, which is surprisingly short for a custom order these days and an enticement in itself.
I'm still considering whether to proceed with the order and, if so, whether to pay the extra for the Sport Plus model. In all probability I will go ahead, but just giving myself another few days of thinking time.
