“What kind of car are you driving?” my neighbor asked me this morning.
“A Genesis” I replied. Because 2024 Genesis Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige is a mouthful.
It's a big name for an interesting luxury EV crossover. And I have some notes about driving it.
This Genesis started at about $66K and totaled out at $75K, so it's not cheap. The $6,800 Prestige Package is a big part of that cost.
The keys specs here are 429 horsepower/320 kW from two electric motors — one front, one rear — and a boost mode that can get you to 483 horsepower for 10 seconds. With two electric motors, this Genesis is all-wheel drive, and the total torque figure is 516 lb-ft.
The range provided by the 77.4-kWh lithium-ion battery is 236 miles. Charge times are seven hours on Level II, and 73 minutes 10 percent to 80 percent on 50 kW charging and 18 minutes 10-80 percent when its 250 kW.
Here are some pros, cons, and other notes.
Pros
- The cabin is quiet. Obviously some of this is the EV powertrain, but road and wind noise is also well filtered.
- I like the gauge design, it's an old-school look (Art Deco influenced, maybe?).
- The interior materials look and feel upscale.
- As much as I dislike overly complicated infotainment controls, Genesis has made this one easy to use. I like the rocker audio switches and the large wheel/knob that helps navigate menus. I also didn't need to menu-dive much for basic functions, and the HVAC has easy-to-use knobs and a touch screen that actually responds to inputs.
- I dug how Genesis hid the switch for opening/closing the power liftgate along the rear wiper housing.
- The boost mode is nice.
- Handling in sport mode is a tad lively.
- The ride is smooth even over urban pavement.
- I like the exterior styling, as is usually the case with Genesis products.
Cons
- The materials may look nice, but they collect fingerprints quickly.
- The price is a tad dear and some of the features in the Prestige Package, such as the leather seats, heated steering wheel, and heated second-row seats should probably be standard at this price.
- Apple CarPlay was wired — it's surprising to not have it be wireless at this price point.
- The range is a bit low at just 236 miles.
I liked this Genesis a lot but I can't figure out the use case — or why certain features are absent or not standard at this price. I am not sure who the buyer is here — there's ample cargo and passenger space but other crossovers offer more.
If Genesis can tweak the packaging, perhaps I can see the use case. Instead we end up with a very nice and very nice-looking crossover that's relatively engaging to drive but feels like its just not fully baked.
[Images © 2024 Tim Healey/TTAC.com]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
