With sales trends clearly pointing to SUVs driving the market in the 2020’s, luxury carmakers have been scrambling to make waves in a vehicle category they have traditionally eschewed.
A few have already made the jump with success. Rolls-Royce already did it and Aston Martin is putting their hopes on the upcoming DBX. Bentley sent one to Pikes Peak, and even Lamborghini swallowed its pride and came out with an SUV that vaguely fits the traditional Lambo theme.
Watch the new Genesis GV80 suv below!
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Video credit: Rumble
Now, Hyundai’s luxury division Genesis has joined the fray with its first-ever SUV, the GV80. The vehicle is powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine with prescient suspension, AR navigation, and active seats in a very luxurious and comfy interior.
It was first unveiled as a concept in 2017 but has made its way into production reality when the market potential opened up.
Because the Chinese market is big on grilles (literally), the GV80’s Korean/American/German designers included a “Crest Grille” that predominates at the front of the car. The headlights are quad lamps set in a stacked-line design that Genesis hopes will become iconic to the brand.
While the GV80 pays lip service to off-road capability with an all-wheel-drive, the rear-wheel-drive will be standard. The launch version of the vehicle has a 278-horsepower, 3-liter, six-cylinder diesel engine but gas turbos will follow soon. The main focus is on performance and efficiency, which the vehicle ably gives with the rear-wheel-drive diesel clocking 11.8 km/l (just under 28 mpg) in five-seater mode. A three-row, seven-seat variant is also available.
The vehicle also comes with an innovative adaptive cruise system that utilizes machine learning to slowly make the driving experience truly yours. Automated lane-change capability, auto emergency braking, blind-spot collision avoidance, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance, and more will leave you no doubt that you’re driving a 21st-century vehicle.
And for an even smoother ride, the active suspension system will use the adaptive cruise system’s cameras and other navigation information to plot the road ahead and adapt to the shocks as needed.
The inside is what you would expect to find in a luxury vehicle but offers even more. For instance, the augmented reality nav system is overlaid on live imagery taken from the car’s front camera and can show you where you need to turn on the expansive 14.5-inch infotainment screen.
There’s also active road noise control, an “active motion” driver’s seat that has seven air cells that change shape as needed to reduce driver fatigue for those long drives. And for heavily-polluted areas, the car’s air purifiers will screen out 99 percent of particulate matter for an even more refreshing drive.
The GV80 has a lot going for it and that’s exactly what Genesis is hoping for.
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