In this episode we are in Minneapolis test driving the 2025 Genesis GV80 Coupe, which went from concept to production in just 15 month to help the Korean luxury brand gain market share from its Germans and the Japanese rivals.
Total Car Score
S5E50: 2025 Genesis GV80 Coupe, the new threat to the Germans
Hey there, I'm your host and channeler and medium, bringing you over 30 years of experience to Portale Mystico podcast. I've dedicated my life to uncovering and treasure trove of tools and techniques and I can't wait to share them with you. Join me on this incredible journey, where we'll dive deep into spirituality, astrology, channeling fitness, the divine feminine, numerology and various spiritual modalities. And each week you'll receive invaluable insights and interviews that are going to bring you closer to that version of yourself that you want to achieve. Expect captivating interviews with experts, deep dives into metaphysical concepts and practical advice to ignite your creativity and boost your personal growth. I'm your host, Alita Mago, and Portale Mystico podcast. Listen to Portale Mystico on Pandora app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or your favorite platform. In the sprawling expanse of Texas where oil, cowboys and cattle loom as large as the state itself, tales of true crime defy the imagination. The Texas Crime Stories podcast unravels the most chilling and perplexing crimes that have scarred the lone star state. Join me investigative reporter Robert Riggs with firsthand accounts from law officers and chilling encounters with serial killers. I take you from the crime scene to the courtroom and into prisons. It's a journey into the heart of darkness, not for the faint of heart. Listen to true crime reporter on the Pandora app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcast. Welcome to the Total Car Score podcast, bringing you the world of cars from inside the car. And now your host, Carl Brower, Lauren Vix, and Javier Motov. Well, here we are in Minnesota, sitting inside the Genesis GV80 coupe. And even though it's a more sportier version of it, you're pretty comfortable back there, yeah? Well, I mean, besides the fact that Trevor's kind of close to me, but otherwise, he's a little scary, but no, there's always friendly. No, there's plenty of room back here and Trevor's showing off the recline feature, which is pretty. Oh my God, that's a lot of reclining. Even with the cargo cover in place, it's not running into it. Look at this. Wow. Okay, so there's apparently no compromise in rear seat space. Also, I noticed when I was driving in it last night, riding in it to dinner that there's plenty of headroom up here. They figured out how to have a slight relief for your head in the headliner area without it impacting the outside. And still have a sun roof and everything. I mean, like it's everything in it. Yeah, so we got plenty of space back here in this back row. And here in the front row, I have Jin. Hello, your last name again. Jin Kim. So you are the designer for this vehicle. And you are telling an interesting story about how you or your team proposed this version of the GV80 from the very beginning. I don't know how many years ago that was, but Genesis is only 10 years. So everything that has happened in Genesis recent. I think it was back in 2016 when we launched our brand. And in the beginning of the brand launch, we were considering to build this luxurious midsize SUV. And since at that time, we proposed many different typologies in terms of design. What type of SUV we're going to be building for the brand. And on the first try, unfortunately, we didn't make it. But we did offer cool paper at the time. But we couldn't convince our management at the time. But with the success with the… I mean, there weren't BCL on general brand. Yeah. But basically, you know, we wanted to pay more true to SUV platform first, like proper SUV, make the proper SUV first. And then we were able to convince them with the derivative version, which is GV80. So travel to remember or to remind some people who might not remember. Genesis started as an own brand in 16. And back then, you started with the G90. And then… G80 and G90. G80 and G90. So sedan. So this was already in the plans. But this one, we saw it first. The coupe, GV80 coupe, we saw it first as a concept car. Only 15 months ago. Tell us about that process, which is pretty impressive. Yeah, it's fairly recent. You know, it's one of those things, you know, we work closely with Jin and his team in design. And we then take it through business studies. Like, okay, design's great. Let's take a look and see if we can make a business case out of it. And long story short, of course, it did. That's why we're sitting in one today. But, you know, the journey there involves a lot of coordination with, you know, various teams, engineering in particular, to make sure we can achieve all we want to achieve. We want to preserve, of course, the styling of the vehicle. But we also wanted to preserve a lot of the features in a luxury SUV, right? We should have comforts there. We want to make sure, we talked about NVH before we started this episode here, right? So that was something we wanted to preserve. So all those have to come together in order to execute a successful product. And Carl, you were really impressed with your first ride, right? Yeah, I didn't finally get a chance to put it in Sport Plus until we were in for a while. And I was like, well, you wasn't the right time we got in the rain. I know we happened to twisty roads. I'm like, I should probably try this thing. And I was definitely caught off guard by how confident the car felt in corners, especially in Sport Plus. And also, I'm a stickler for steering feel. It's like one of my main things. And the waiting off center was really nice in Sport Plus mode. It definitely was, you know, I know with electric assist power steering, you have to kind of recreate what is otherwise the waiting because it's not mechanically based. It's based on a computer code. And it's just down to how well the people who tune those codes can make the steering feel. But I was happily impressed by what felt like very organic and natural steering feel. Yeah, me too. I mean, all the features that mechanically are fantastic. And when you put it in that Sport Plus mode, it's really good. But let's go back to the design because obviously it's based on the GV80 SUV, but it's not completely different, but very different. Well, I mean, the fundamental, you know, the vehicle is still the same, very similar to SUV version, but to add more emotional design statement to the vehicle, we basically slice of the roof, make the roof just Kevin jester a lot more faster, kind of mimicking our concept car, latest concept car, Genesis X GPU. So, but at the same time, this isn't this is a utility vehicle. We didn't want to sacrifice rear rear seat interior space, especially the headroom. So it was a big challenge challenge for us to, you know, work the package, you know, package hard on the B pillar back. It's different. Yeah. So starting starting from B pillar and backward, most of the panels are brand new, newly engineered, quarter panels are new, we're a truncate is new, bumper covers, new and tail amp is new to capture to juice out more sportiness out of this design language. Yeah, Trevor, there was a question this morning during the official presentation about obviously the competition and you're aiming about the Germans. I mean, there's no secret, the whole brand is, right? But in this particular segment, the pricing of this vehicle has two versions of it. It's very aggressive. And I always say it with not, not because we're here, but all the Genes, all the Hyundai products, the value, the value price formula, it's really your main advantage, you will see? For us, it's one of those things, we take a look at the market and see what obviously, what the competitors are offering, right? As a product planner, we're always doing that regardless of, you know, what brand we're working on. And it's one of those things, in this case, you were looking at the Germans, as you say, right, to see what's included with that. And we can really, we quickly realize that, okay, well, shoppers who are looking at a luxury vehicle, they're probably a very busy vehicle, have very busy lives when they're shopping for a vehicle, right? In order to be that successful, they're probably doing a lot of things right in life. And so to make that even easier for consumers, what we're doing is we're including a lot of standard equipment. So what we're doing with Coupe, the starting off point on the Coupe, is based on the highest trim of the SUV. And then we're building on top of that. So basically, you're ending up choosing between two executions, which powertrain do you want, what size wheels do you want, and then you're choosing colors at that point. Yeah. The standard feature list is pretty impressive. I mean, ventilated and heated front and rear seats, and power rear seats in the base model. Head up to display. Six-way power rear seats. Six-way power. I'm not requiring that. I just head up to display. Yeah, there's just a lot that you're getting before you ever have to step up to an additional charge. And that just feels like a very good value play and very standard issue genesis to make that value play. So. Hey there, I'm your host and channeler and medium, bringing you over 30 years of experience to put aside mystical podcasts. I've dedicated my life to uncovering and treasure trove of tools and techniques, and I can't wait to share them with you. Join me on this incredible journey, where we'll dive deep into spirituality, astrology channeling fitness, the divine feminine, numerology, and various spiritual modalities. And each week, you'll receive invaluable insights and interviews that are going to bring you closer to that version of yourself that you want to achieve. Expect captivating interviews with experts. Deep dives into metaphysical concepts and practical advice to ignite your creativity and boost your personal growth. I'm your host, Alita Mago. I'm Portofag, mystical podcast. Listen to Portofag, mystical on Pandora app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or your favorite platform. In the sprawling expanse of Texas where oil, cowboys, and cattle loomas large as the state itself, tales of true crime defy the imagination. The Texas Crime Stories podcast unravels the most chilling and perplexing crimes that has scarred the Lone Star state. Join me, investigative reporter Robert Riggs with firsthand accounts from law officers and chilling encounters with serial killers. I take you from the crime scene to the courtroom and into prisons. It's a journey into the heart of darkness, not for the faint of heart. Listen to true crime reporter on the Pandora app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcast. I think we were talking about sales figures. Javier and I when we were driving and we were like looking at my surgeon and it's like you guys are on track to have your best year yet. You're headed last year for six months in halfway through the year. If you end up somewhere in the 60s, you're going to be basically starting to tie brands like Acura and Infini and stuff. You're either passing or almost equating to these Japanese luxury brands that have been around for 40 years, something like that. So yeah, it's really great news for Genesis, but there honestly is a part of me that looks at some of these brands that are much older and it's like, ah, that sucks. It's the people. I mean, it's like the team. Your team, your team, designing, engineering, product planning. I mean, that's what makes a difference. I mean, it's amazing what you guys have been doing so quickly. Yes, absolutely. Again, it takes it takes an entire team to make this thing work. And I'm glad to be able to be surrounded by folks who are the share the same vision to do not only do things, but to do things right. So tell us a few more details because there are a lot like the grill is different. The tailpipes are different. The wheels obviously are different 20 or 22 overhang. Yeah, what are some of the key things you feel to help distinguish him? Exterwise, definitely. The newly redesigned Fastback Kevin is a big deal. And basically, you know, this car comes with standard 3.5 liter engine with additional option of choosing e-superchargers. So naturally, the identity of this chassis has, you know, is more sports driving oriented setup. So to capture more of this vehicle's nature, we basically wanted to make the front end, we're more aggressive and more athletic design language, accentuating more athletic design language. So front on the front, we adopted the MLA lamp, which we showcase in our flagship set on G90 several years ago. So we're trying to, it's a very high technology lamp execution. So we're trying to expand that technology to all other models sooner or later. And GV80's coupe carry over that technology. And the front face impression overall, again, it's to capture more aggressiveness out of this, you know, design language and all the surface gesture, volume control and high tech everywhere. Yes. So more, more, more less chromie upfront and just kind of feel a bit more body color to be given more sportiness. And also on the grill, we came up with this dual layer grill execution. We have only done this on G90, but with GV80 since it's such a GV80 coupe, since it's such a, you know, iconic vehicle, we did the same execution. But with this time, we made it more three dimensional construction. So it's a very sporty, impressed image grill execution. So Trevor, as we said, we saw this car as a concept in April 23 in New York, in the magma color. And that color is here, but in a little detail. So can you explain what magma and what's going to happen, what whatever you can tell us. What's my crystal ball treasure? I can tell you about the stitching in this car here, my GV80, the seat belts. You're interested in that? I can talk about that. Tell us where the magma inspiration comes from. Regardless of what happens in the future, you guys have kind of locked onto this concept of magma, which I think is interesting because it's a it's a fascinating, but also somewhat dangerous material on the planet. You got to be careful with it, you know, but it's hot. It's hot. Yeah. Right. So a lot of, a lot of references that will draw from geographic inspirations. Right. I think design likes to call it orthographic type of inspirations. And so we take into that all into account of that, you know, with our colors. I mentioned the colors today, we're drawing a lot from geographical locations during blue at the vehicle that we're in right now from the bearing sea. So we're drawing a lot of connections to earth and where we spend our time, right? We're on earth. And so lava is almost the essence of the earth. And that's what magma is intended to be, the essence of a motor vehicle or a motoring experience. And so what we would like to do with magma, I think as we previewed with with good wood, not too long ago, right? So it's just this past summer here in in the UK, right? A more elevated experience. And I know we're always talking about more elevatedogenesis, because that is the ethos of what Genesis is. But we're taking that in different dimension, right? So we'll still have the foundation of the luxurious experience, right? As as being expanded and being elevated, but it's taking that take that into a different dimension and add on to that capability of a performance. And so we're looking at different programs where we can apply magma. It's very much in the works right now to see where we can best put our efforts with with magma. So it's it's a pretty exciting time to be a Genesis and planning, because I would like to magma all the things, because who wouldn't? Yeah, exactly. At the end of the day, you know, it is a finite resource with the teams and such. Can someone order that color that we saw the concept car? You know, a lot of companies can wrap cars, you know. Oh, okay. Okay, no. There are, but there are, tell us real quickly about the two unique colors for GV 80 Coupe, because I thought they looked and sounded with cool names. Yeah, so we have bearing blue, as I mentioned earlier, here's kind of like an ice-colored blue. The other one, I believe, was a Mona Red. Yeah. All right, so Mona after Hawaii, of course. And so that one is a distinctive color available only for Coupe. You can't get that in the SUV. So the two of those, I think, are a great one to punch that we've got. Yeah, we talked a lot about the details. We didn't talk much about that technology, but very briefly, because we're at a time like 27 screen and like a lot of technology in here. And also like the details everywhere, right? Yeah, I'm actually a surrogate. I don't know full updates on the facelift model, especially Coupe. But as far as I know, we're offering three different CMF options for this car. Four. Okay. Four. And to capture more sporty atmosphere in the interior, all the colors are more vivid compared to SUV model. And also with this accent, stitching, orange stitching, and leather piping, it just adds more dynamics, dynamic filling in the interior. Also, I think this chrome trim is also clear carpet fiber trims for Coupe. Yeah. A lot of exclusive details. So anyway, the steering wheel. So we just wanted to reward the driver a little bit more. I know this is a family car, but so to reward the driver, we modified, we upgraded the steering wheel. So it's got flat bottom on the on the bar on the lower. It's got it's got decuts steering wheels to give it more and more sporty texture and grip. So to finish, during the at the end of the presentation, you gave us the chance or genesis gave us a chance to sketch. Yeah. But of the cars, are you afraid about job security? A little bit. Looking at all the sketches, you guys, that you got, I mean, some sketches were really creative. Although I give you guidelines to start. Yeah. Oh my God, some people sketch convertible. Yeah, that's what we want. Okay, Trevor, when is the convertible coming? You'll never know. Well, thank you very much for your time in the car here talking, but like for the time driving it, because it was really, really amazing. So Carl, anything else? Yeah. I don't think any designers have to be worried about their jobs. We're going to keep doing podcast. You can keep doing cars. We're, we're threatened by AI's these days. So that's more threatening than all of them. We don't have any of that. We don't have natural intelligence. We don't have any of that. We don't have natural intelligence, my choice. There's no real voices. There's no real voices going on. But thank you very much again, and talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you for listening. For more, check us out online at TotalCarScore.com. In the sprawling expanse of Texas, where oil, cowboys, and cattle loom as large as the state itself, tales of true crime defy the imagination. The Texas Crime Stories podcast unravels the most chilling and perplexing crimes that have scarred the lone star state. Join me, investigative reporter Robert Riggs, with firsthand accounts from law officers and chilling encounters with serial killers. I take you from the crime scene to the courtroom and into prisons. It's a journey into the heart of darkness, not for the faint of heart. Listen to True Crime Reporter on the Pandora app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcast. Hey there, I'm your host and channeler and medium bringing you over 30 years of experience to put a slightly mystical podcast. I've dedicated my life to uncovering and treasure trover tools and techniques and I can't wait to share them with you. Join me on this incredible journey where we'll dive deep into spirituality, astrology, channeling, fitness, the divine feminine, numerology, and various spiritual modalities. And each week you'll receive invaluable insights and interviews that are going to bring you closer to that version of yourself that you want to achieve. Expect captivating interviews with experts. Deep dives into metaphysical concepts and practical advice to ignite your creativity and boost your personal growth. I'm your host, Elena Majo, and I'm your fan, mystical podcast. Listen to Portofale Mystico on Pandora app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite platform. [BLANK_AUDIO]