Hyundai Luxury Brand Genesis To Include Electric Vehicles

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Electric vehicles will be part of the lineup of Hyundai’s newly created luxury brand “Genesis,” according to recent reports.

While the intent behind the new brand’s creation was largely to give the Genesis and Equus models their own brand (previously, these were sold under the Hyundai name), the new brand leader’s opinion that electric vehicles (EVs) will be important in the future seems likely to have played some part as well.

“I think full electric cars will be the future in the auto industry,” noted new Genesis boss Manfred Fitzgerald in a recent conversation with Reuters at the Busan Auto Show in South Korea. He noted that EVs being a part of Genesis’ future plans was “very, very obvious.”

Fitzgerald didn’t let any specifics slip, though, so who knows how long until the brand launches an EV.

“But the brand faces a challenge of carving out its own identity and differentiating itself from its group brands — Hyundai and Kia Motors — as well as German competitors,” Reuters notes.

“The main goal is to have a strong differentiation within brands. No design overlap,” said Luc Donckerwolke, senior vice president at Hyundai Design Center.

What do you think — will Hyundai/Genesis bring compelling enough high-end electric cars to market to really compete here? Or will they end up seeing small sales and being a niche segment of the brand? (I know, we don’t have a lot of information to go on so far.)