Fledgling luxury car brand Genesis has vowed to package its Australian-spec vehicles with the most advanced technology available – without charging prestige prices.
Expansive and expensive optional extras are considered de rigueur among luxury car makers, often equating to a sizeable portion of a new models’s final transaction price.
However, Hyundai’s luxury offshoot plans to do things differently. Hyundai Australia general manager Scott Grant says Genesis will be heavily value-oriented. And for those items not available as standard, the marque will bundle additional equipment into simple and concise packages.
In other words, don’t go expecting to splurge another $1000 on heated seats.
“Customers are looking to some extent for value, but also tech and safety, but packaged in a very simplistic way. And the ownership experience will be unique to them,” Grant said.
Crash test results from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) reveals the mid-size G70 sedan will be available in three trim level across two engine variants in Australia, all boasting a five-star safety rating.
Hyundai’s first direct rival for the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class will be offered with 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol and 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 engines.
The various model variants will be simply known as G70 2.0T, G70 2.0T Sport and G70 2.0T Ultimate (four-cylinder) and G70 3.3T Sport, G70 3.3T Ultimate and G70 3.3T Ultimate Sport (V6).
All Genesis G70 vehicles will be fitted as standard with low- and high-speed autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, plus lane-departure warning and lane-keep assist.
Adaptive suspension, Brembo brakes, a 360-degree camera system, acoustic laminated glass, Nappa leather upholstery, head-up display, wireless charging and a 15-speaker premium sound system will also be available.
However, Genesis isn’t expected to nominate which of those items will be standard and which will be optional until closer to its national launch around March 2019.
Comfort features on the Genesis G70, which will be sold alongside the larger G80 sedan, will be headlined by a posture control system that takes the driver’s body information and adjusts the seat, steering wheel, outside mirror and head-up display accordingly.
As for price, Genesis stakeholders were extremely tight-lipped during a preview of the Australian operations in Sydney this week.
“We plan to do a press function before our Sydney store opening and at that stage we will release all the pricing and specification details, along with other details,” confirmed Genesis Australia boss Peter Evans.