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Video: 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70: Up Close
By Cars.com Editors
November 4, 2022About the video
2023 Genesis Electrified GV70: Up Close – Cars.com
Transcript
South Korean luxury brand Genesis is kind of taking a two-pronged approach to their electrification strategy. On one hand, they're offering this, the new Genesis, GV60.
It's an all-electric small crossover SUV, and it's got wild styling, and it's got unusual features, and it's designed from the ground up to be an electric vehicle. So those quirks and unusual bits are kind of baked into what it is. But if you want something that's a bit more ordinary and just looks like your average everyday luxury vehicle that also happens to have an electric powertrain, they're also offering this. This is the new Genesis electrified G80 sedan, and it looks pretty much just like a normal G80, but it has a battery electric power train. Now for Genesis's third act, they're introducing this. This is the new Genesis electrified GV70 SUV, and it kind of takes a page out of the electrified G80 sedan's playbook, and then it pretty much looks just like a gas powered GV70, but it has an all electric battery powered power train. Now if it looks pretty much just like a regular gas powered GV70, really, what are the differences between the two? Well, come with me. Let me take you through it. Can you spot the differences between the gas powered and the electrified GV70? Well, quite frankly, if you don't know what you're looking for, it's gonna be kind of hard to spot. The biggest most obvious difference is up here in the grille. There's no more mesh grille, because what are you flowing cooling air to? There's no engine in there. There is however a need for aerodynamic efficiency. So this becomes the inverted G-Matrix grille, which looks more like a grid than an actual mesh. The real purpose of this grille, however, is to hide the charging port, which if you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd probably have a hard time spotting. However, it is right here. And that is where you actually plug in the electrified GV70. The electrified GV70 also has some unique wheels that are, well, unique to the electrified versions of Genesis products. But the only other big visual change is out back here where obviously, there's no more tailpipes. So instead, Genesis created this strong horizontal panel and a special skid plate for the rear of the electrified GV70. The rest of it pretty much looks like every other GV70 on the road, which is not a bad thing, 'cause I think this thing looks dynamite. So what's under the hood? Well, quite frankly, we are not entirely certain. Genesis hasn't released specs for the new electrified GV70, but we do know a couple of things from its introduction of the Korean model. We know that it's got two motors, one on the front axle, one on the rear axle, so it has standard all wheel drive. It also has the ability to cut power to one of those axles in order to conserve energy while it's driving along. If the all wheel drive system doesn't see the need to have both front and rear powered up, you can just use one and conserve energy. We also know that it produces a system 360 kilowatts of power output. Now Americans don't know really what a kilowatt is in terms of power output. So in freedom units, that's 483 horsepower roughly. We also know that when you push the boost button, which this has just like the GV60 does, it'll go from zero to 60 in about four and a half seconds, which is pretty extraordinary for any SUV. We also know that it uses a common battery architecture with other Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis products. So that's a 400 volt, 800 volt system, and Genesis says that that's good for recharging the battery at a fast charger from 10% to 80% state of charge in just under 20 minutes. Now having had some experience with other Hyundai and Kia and Genesis electric products, I can say that that number is probably pretty accurate. The interior of the Genesis electrified GV70 looks pretty much just like the average conventional gas powered GV70, which is to say it looks fantastic. The material quality in here, the designs, the shapes, there's actual artistry in a lot of Genesis interiors, and that's no different in this one either. You've got a lot of really good materials. You've got a lot of solid construction. What I like about it is that there's also a lot of actual buttons. They didn't go complete touch screen on everything. There are a lot of hard points, a lot of controls, a lot of things to provide easy feedback, so that you know you've actually pressed something when you go to press it. Now, in terms of the differences between the gas and the electric version, the first one is, well, this color. This is Glacier White, and it's only available on the electrified versions of Genesis models. The other one is actually something unique to this model, and that's in the backseat. And that big difference is the floor. You see, there's no drive shaft connecting the front axle and the rear axle of the Genesis electrified GV70, because well, it's got two different electric motors, one on the front and one on the rear. The normal gas powered GV70 is a rear drive vehicle. So you've got a high drive shaft hump connecting the front and the rear of the vehicle. Not so in the electrified version. So that's enabled the Genesis engineers to lower this drive shaft hump and provide more leg room for the middle seat passenger. Now the floor itself is a little bit higher 'cause the battery has to go somewhere, and it goes basically under the floor in this model, but more leg room, that's always a good thing. One thing that hasn't changed between the gas powered GV70 and the electrified GV70 is the cargo room. You have just as much cargo space back here as you do in the gas powered version, and that's a little different than the electrified G80 sedan which does lose a little bit of its trunk space to the electrified power train and the batteries. Not so here. You have just as much room as you do and the gas powered version, plus you have something a little bit extra. You have a plug down here that you can use for exterior accessories. Now what else don't we know about the new electrified GV70? Well, we don't know how much it's going to cost. The regular GV70 starts at about $43,000, but the electrified version is going to cost more than that. You can pretty much be guaranteed of that. We also don't know exactly when it's going to be arriving in showrooms. We know that production starts in December of 2022. So hopefully, the vehicles will start arriving in showrooms shortly thereafter. And when we do know all of the things like range and pricing and availability, you'll find all of that information on cars.com.
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