Genesis GV70 Review 2024

Genesis is the posh wing of South Korean brand Hyundai; think Lexus from Toyota, or Infiniti from Nissan. Its arrival in the UK may have escaped you, but the company has been been busy enough in America to come at us with a respectable range of cars, and is sufficiently confident to challenge the German brands’ domination of the premium family SUV market. Our Genesis GV70 review will reveal if they have anything to worry about.

With the V standing for ‘versatile’, the Genesis GV70 sits between the Genesis GV60 and the Genesis GV80 as a rival to SUVs such as the top-quality Audi Q5, the agile BMW X3 and tech-laden Mercedes GLC.  To that list you can add the likes of the Volvo XC60 and sporty Alfa Romeo Stelvio.

Apart from vying with Audi for brand-with-the-biggest-grille honours, the exterior of the Genesis GV70 is rather unremarkable, like so many mid-sized SUVs.

The cabin, however, is another matter. It’s positively plush, but barely in a European manner, evoking unlikely memories of the Rover 75.

We can’t help wondering if an earlier, more futuristic interior design for the Genesis GV70 is lying around in a drawer somewhere, having been spurned in favour of this, which feels very much like a take on American luxury.

Either way, it is splendid. Sumptuous-feeling leather abounds, with barely a whiff of black plastic anywhere, and an ellipse motif dominates, rather elegantly carved out of the dashboard to contain heating and lighting controls to the left and right of the wheel.

The front-seat accommodation is as comfortable as the opulent surroundings would suggest, and the driving position feels rather car-like and not especially high, despite the presence of a Terrain mode and all-wheel drive in the engineering department.

Split-folding rear seat headroom and legroom are generous enough, and a powered tailgate oozes open to reveal a 542-litre loadspace with luggage cover storage beneath the floor.

Three powerplants are available. Firstly, there are four-cylinder, 2.5-litre turbocharge petrol and 2.2-litre diesel units with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission, good for 304PS and 201PS respectively. There’s also a pricier electrified version with a motor on each axle for all-wheel drive. This delivers a healthy 490PS, and a quoted WLTP range of 283 miles.

The driving experience is all about comfort. Even the diesel engine is very quiet, the eight-speed ’box slushes through the gears with consummate smoothness and the ride is terrific. There’s just enough road surface information transmitted to keep you informed, but never enough to unsettle the cosseting appropriate to the cabin environment. 

The Genesis GV70 handles tidily enough, but you’re far more likely to find a smile on your face if you ease off and enjoy the refinement, rather than trying to corner vigorously

With a choice of Premium, Sport or Luxury grades, the Genesis GV70 range is priced from £42,370, but there’s a daunting leap to the all-electric versions, which will set you back a minimum of £65,105. For that amount, you’d expect the buying experience to be something special. And it’s certainly different…

Genesis doesn’t have a UK dealer network, instead operating ‘Studios’ – essentially shop fronts in upmarket shopping centres. To date, there are only three of these in the UK, so it’s a good job you don’t have to hunt one down.

Instead, you simply connect with Genesis online, and you’ll be allotted your own Genesis Personal Assistant who’ll hold your hand through the sale, from test drive to delivery and, later, aftercare. The Assistant isn’t on commission, so customers are promised they won’t be given the hard sell. 

The Genesis GV70 rides so comfortably that you’d be forgiven for thinking it must be awash with electronic trickery keeping everything on an even keel.

In fact, there’s no air suspension option for the range, but all versions are equipped with road scanning adaptive damping which prepares the shock absorbers for bumps before you breach them. And it works beautifully.

There’s an unflustered calm to progress in this car, perfectly complementing the quiet, refined atmosphere of the cabin.

The ride is very controlled, with, unsurprisingly for a car that weighs more than two tonnes, a background firmness which, in truth, we find more informative (of road surface) than intrusive. 

The Luxury grade car we drove rides on 21-inch wheels, and you can be sure that the lesser 18-inch offerings fitted to lower-grade models would do a better job of smoothing out road surface ripples.

It’s very quiet. At motorway pace, the diesel takes a back seat and either wind or road noise predominates. Both are very hushed, however, with road roar particularly well isolated. Lob in exceptionally comfortable front seats and long-haul progress becomes very pleasant indeed.

The steering is pleasingly weighty, heavier than that of most rivals but appropriate to such a substantial machine. Body control is surprisingly good, coping with poor surfaces well, yet with just enough roll through corners to remind you of the heft you have on your hands.

As a result, the Genesis GV70 corners cleanly and accurately, without ever demanding that you become more thoroughly engaged in the process.

Three powerplants are available – one petrol, one diesel and one all-electric. 

The four-cylinder, 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine develops 304PS and 422Nm of torque, while the 2.2-litre, four-cylinder diesel unit is good for 201PS and a handsome 440Nm of torque.

Both cars are all-wheel drive, and come with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The petrol engine achieves a 0-62mph time of 6.1 seconds and a top speed of 149mph, with the diesel recording 7.9 seconds and 133mph respectively.

The petrol unit only manages fuel economy of 27.9mpg to 29.7mpg in the WLTP combined cycle, though, with the diesel rated between 38mpg and 40mpg.

As you would expect, the diesel’s CO2 emissions of 190-200g/km are better than those of the petrol engine, which generates 216-230g/km.

The all-electric version boasts a 77.4kWh battery powering a motor on each axle for all-wheel drive, a healthy 490PS in Boost mode, a mighty 700Nm of torque and a quoted WLTP range of 283 miles.

Despite being significantly heavier, it’ll ping to 62mph in 4.8 seconds, or just 4.2 seconds with the 10-second burst of full power afforded by Boost mode, and on to 146mph.

This being a car that majors on quietness and refinement, the all-electric powertrain suits it well. But for some £20,000 less, the diesel makes a very decent fist of moving a two tonne car around smoothly, quietly and yet, when called upon, with considerable alacrity.

The Genesis GV70 was awarded a maximum five-star Euro NCAP rating when it was tested in 2021, scoring 89% for adult occupant safety, 87% for child occupant safety and 87% for safety assist technologies. A 64% score for pedestrian safety was a tad less impressive.

Standard safety technology includes a blizzard of airbags, blind-spot collision avoidance, forward collision avoidance, lane-keeping assist, rain-sensing wipers and rear parking sensors.

The optional (and pricey) £4190 Innovation pack further ups the car’s safety credentials with the addition of parking collision avoidance assist, blind spot view monitor, surround view monitor, a head-up display, front parking sensors, dual front LED headlamps and seat occupant detection with radar sensor.

The Genesis GV70 can tow 2500kg braked (or 750kg), falling to 1800kg braked for all-electric models. All versions are pre-wired for towing a trailer.

The Genesis GV70 is 4715mm long, 1910mm wide and 1630mm tall, which is very much par for the course among premium family SUVs.

Why, though, does no one in this class stretch the wheelbase a couple of inches more to match front-seat comfort with more generous rear legroom?

Up front, the Genesis GV70 feels more luxurious than its German rivals, although you’ll need to pick a high specification model for heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Electrically adjustable front seats are standard throughout the range, so finding a comfortable driving position is a doddle.

A Comfort Seat pack adds a massage function, electric side bolsters and cushion extension, and seat heating and ventilation, plus electric lumbar adjustment for the passenger. But at £1700, it’s not cheap.

The Genesis GV70 is less spacious in the back, and the transmission tunnel will irritate centre seat occupants. On the plus side, there’s plenty of headroom and the seatbacks recline. However, some rivals offer more leg and shoulder room.

The loadspace is on a par with rivals, offering 542 litres with all the seats in place, increasing to 1610 litres with the 60:40 rear seats folded flat. The capacity drops to 503 litres in the electrified GV70, but you do get an extra 20 litres up front (in the frunk).

And, with 1678 litres, the EV offers more volume with the rear seats folded down. All variants boast a powered tailgate.

This cabin is a real eye-opener compared to the standard fare in premium family SUVs. Not only does it look lush, it’s wonderfully tactile and beautifully finished, plus extremely comfortable.

Everything has been expertly detailed, including air vents that lurk within a cabin-encircling, brushed metal slot, a handy row of tab switches growing neatly from the bottom of the dashboard ellipse motif, metallic steering-column stalks that are a joy to use, and subtly back-lit graphs on the door panels.

It is strangely satisfying compared with the clinical efficiency we have become used to in German SUVs.

Only the slightly ungainly centre spoke of the steering wheel misses the mark. And it must also be said that putting two similar rotary dials – one a gear selector, the other the infotainment controller for the central touchscreen – in such close proximity isn’t a great idea. Grabbing the right one is an effort, but we expect you’ll get used to it.

Particularly welcome is the plentiful physical switchgear, such as the air-conditioning controls. Perhaps real switchgear may once again become the hallmark of true luxury after all.

The dash top houses a large 14.5-inch portrait orientated touchscreen that you can’t reach while driving. It boats Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, plus connected services.

It looks pretty good, especially when overlaying navigation information onto real-time video feed of the road head, but it can’t quite match the pin-sharp graphics of Jaguar’s Pivi Pro set-up, and BMW’s iDrive system is easier to use.

The driver’s 8.1-inch TFT instrument display is tidy, with helpful blind-spot camera feeds that appear when you indicate.

An optional 12.3-inch 3D-effect display comes as part of a £4200 Innovation Pack, which also adds a head-up display and a gaggle of driver assistance systems. And there are four USB ports fitted as standard, two in the front and two in the back.

The 2.2-litre diesel-engined Genesis GV70 Luxury we drove costs £45,970, with a range of options bumping the price up to £56,590.

This rather smacks of what happens when you buy from the German brands. The base on-the-road figure seems reasonable, yet the extras required to make it the car you really think you need can add the price of a brand-new Kia Picanto.

Bearing that firmly in mind, the Audi Q5 range starts at £48,850, BMW’s X3 from £48,005 and the Mercedes GLC £52,880. The least expensive rival we considered, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, costs from £45,595, the Jaguar F-Pace treads the middle ground at £48,770, and prices for the Volvo XC60 start at a daunting £54,375.

Careful consideration of which options you really do need, then, would seem to be the order of the day.

It’s no surprise to learn that the diesel is the more economical of the Genesis GV70 combustion-engine variants. But WLTP combined cycle figures of 38mpg to 40mpg are somewhat disappointing in the age of hybrids and impressive small turbocharged petrol engines.

Even so, the diesel is miles better than the petrol engine, which only manages 27.9mpg to 29.7mpg in the same cycle. Inevitably, the diesel’s CO2 emissions of 190-200g/km are better than those of the petrol engine, which generates 216-230g/km.

The electric Genesis GV70 delivers a competitive range of some 283 miles. As with all EVs from the Hyundai group, the powertrain is underpinned by 800-volt electric architecture, which means that – unlike most rivals – the car can use ultra-fast 350kW chargers, if you can find one, where a 10-80% battery top-up will take just 18 minutes.

Genesis has partnered with Shell Recharge to give access to its charging points, along with five years’ free access to the Ionity network at a discounted rate of 24p per kWh, rather than the standard rate of 69p per kWh.

All Genesis GV70 models cost over £40,000, so you’ll spend an extra £390 per annum on road tax for five years from the second time you tax the car. You can avoid this by buying the all-electric variant, but that’ll cost you £20,000 more up front for a £1950 saving down the line…

Every Genesis is covered by a five-year Care Plan which includes scheduled servicing for five years or 50,000 miles. With each service visit – and for any necessary work required, including warranty work – Genesis will collect and return the car to your door.

You simply contact your Genesis personal assistant, who can also arrange a courtesy car. The Care Plan also incudes updates to in-car navigation maps, and there’s complimentary subscription to Genesis Connected Services, allowing you to access information services from your phone.

In terms of depreciation, every Genesis should retain some 52% of its list price after a typical three-year/36,000-mile ownership period. The electric GV70 is expected to perform even better, retaining around 55-56%. 

But it would be good to know what percentage of the battery’s original charging capacity remains after this period, and how that has informed the depreciation assessment.

The Genesis GV70 is available in a choice of three trim levels – Premium, Sport and Luxury.

The Genesis GV70 Premium features include dual front LED headlamps (low and high projection), alloy wheels, black high glossy interior garnish, leatherette console box, leatherette dashboard, leather steering wheel, seat memory function for driver, seat electric adjustment for passenger and driver and electric lumbar support (driver and passenger).

Buyers also benefit from electric height adjuster (driver and passenger), electric cushion tilt-up (driver), driver an passenger aibag, front thorax, pelvis and curtain airbag, driver knee airbag, centre side (front) airbag.

There is also SCC (Smart Cruise Control) with Stop and Start, Rear BCA (Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist), LKA (Lane Keeping Assist) and LFA (Lane Following Assist), plus FCA (Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist – car/pedestrian/bicycle).

Premium also comes with 14.5-inch navi screen with DAB Radio, phone Mirroring and Genesis Connected service, preview ECS (Electronic Control Suspension), smart key and button start, eight-inch driver’s cluster TFT display, rear parking sensors, rear view camera with dynamic guidelines on screen, electric rear tailgate opening and finger print reader authentication. 

Genesis GV70 Sport grade builds on the Premium grade features with an electrocromatic outside rear view mirror, 19-inch alloy wheels, heated steering wheel, leather seat cover, heated front seats, ambient lighting, rear air conditioning, auto temperature control (third zone), premium air filter and rear side and Backlite privacy glass. 

Genesis GV70 Luxury grade adds to the Premium grade features with 21-inch alloy wheels and ambient lighting.

Optional equipment includes an Innovation Pack (£4190), a Comfort Pack (£1690), a Second Row Comfort Seat Pack (£600), a Lexicon Premium Audio System (£790), a sunroof (£1460), and an e-LSD (Limited Slip Differential) (£450).

The Genesis GV70 Innovation Pack features a 12.3'-inch 3D driver’s TFT display, head-up display, Highway Driving Assist II (HDA II), quad LED headlamps with Intelligent Front Lighting System (IFS), Forward Collision-avoidance Assist (FCA-JX), Blind-Spot View Monitor (BVM), Reverse PCA (Reverse Parking Collision-Avoidance Assist), Remote Smart Parking Assist (RSPA), Front Parking Sensors, Surround View Monitor (SVM), and wireless phone charging.

The Genesis GV70 Comfort Pack contains ergo motion seats for driver (massage function), electric cushion extension (driver), electric cushion extension (passenger), electric side bolster (driver), electric side bolster (passenger), lower cushion air support system (driver), ventilated seats (front), touch power seat adjustment switch, and electric lumbar support (passenger). 

The Genesis GV70 Second Row Comfort Seat Pack offers heated seats (front and rear), rear seat manual door curtain, A/C inverter (220V) and laminated rear glass.