Genesis' Exciting Shift To The Higher-End Luxury Market Could Not Come At A Worse Time

The uneasy echo of a single bullhorn-amplified voice echoing off of buildings amid the incredibly busy end-of-day Seoul traffic served as an awkward background to the Genesis brand's Korea immersion trip. The PR team hadn't anticipated orderly protests in the streets over the impeachment of the country's president as the legal case was supposed to be wrapped up by now. Some planned outings had to be rerouted, cut short, and a dinner literally next door to the courthouse needed to be changed. While the protests put a small kink in our experience of the country, the former South Korean president's legal woes were not foremost on the minds of English-speaking journalists from around the world. No, really putting a damper on our experience of Genesis in its hometown was America truly messing things up.

Full disclosure: Genesis flew me out to South Korea and spent a week instructing myself and a group of journalists in what it means to design, build and sell a truly Korean brand. It put us up in a swanky hotel and fed us lots of pickled veggies and soji before hosting us at its reveal at the Seoul Motor Show

To be clear, the protesters in Seoul performed their civic duty in entirely peaceful ways and never threatened anyone's safety. People sang, shouted slogans and eventually celebrated when the country impeached their crooked, power-hungry president (how novel!) to the great relief of an overwhelming majority of South Koreans. The trip was still a fantastic holistic look at the brand and the Genesis brand and the Korean soil it grows in. But the protests did serve as a reminder of what happens when the rarified air of luxury car design reaches the exhaust fumes of the world at large.

I've been a Genesis girlie since the brand first spun off from Hyundai in 2015. There's just a level of old-school cool injected into the company that I really dig, and Genesis certainly does things differently. For instance, as journalists and PR people buzzed around on the floor of the Seoul Motor Show last week, cars debuted from Porsche, BYD and Ineos with videos and soundtracks more at home in a Marvel movie or dubstep set than a car reveal. Genesis, however, kicked off its presentation with a piano solo from virteouso Sunwook Kim.

The company was there to unveil the X Gran Coupe and the X Gran Convertible concepts. In a segment where competitor brands may have built a meaner, more aggressive car, Genesis instead drew inspiration from the Mediterranean — the Gran Coupe is full of nods to olives and the Gran Convertible has two lovely wine-dark shades of purple inside and out. Ilhun Yoon, head of the Genesis Design Center in Seoul, said the region evokes a relaxed, rich feeling, feelings which are certainly in vanishing supply these days.

"We believe we are to expand to more different experiences. We thought the Mediterranean was very relaxed and rich, and we really wanted that kind of feeling in our concepts," said Yoon. "Of course, we took colors and material out of the Mediterranean, but it's the character we really wanted."

For Genesis, the only place to expand its brand is into the less appreciated — and more exclusive — body types, hence the big ol' coupe and convertible. There are already plenty of money-making Genesis SUVs and various lengths of still-popular-abroad sedans in the lineup. Sure, you can get the GV70 and G80 in an electrified flavor, and there's the wacky standalone GV60 EV, but that's it for now. Chief Creative Officer and Chief Brand Officer for Genesis Luc Donckerwolke told journalists it's time the brand pushed for more.

"The more examples of a certain typology you see, it forces it to become a commodity," Donckerwolke said during a media round table. "I think it's important to have a different architecture in the lineup. A car which could be integrated into our line up. Make the platform the best as possible so you can use the least amount of makeup on the car."

That certainly seems keeping in line with the Korean aesthetic of organic minimalism. Our intro to Korean design curated by Genesis included a tea ceremony in a traditional hanok, where we learned the Korean style of both tea drinking and house building relied more on the beauty of what exists in front of you rather than perfectionism. Exposed wooden beams in the hanok keep their organic wonky lines, and the tea can be served without a protractor measuring out participants proper angles of inclination while sipping. Koreans work to highlight the beauty that exists already — whether that be a house, a car or the act of drinking tea — rather than dress it up too much.

Which is why the company turned to its flagship vehicle, the G90 sedan, as the basis of its two concepts. Donckerwolke assured journalists that the company doesn't just make show cars for the fun of it, and confirmed the upcoming GV90 SUV would be based largely on last year's Neolun concept and will soon join its sedan sister at the top of the brand's lineup.

Could we see these two Eat-Pray-Love concepts go from show car to showroom-ready with the same quickness? Neither Donckerwolke nor Genesis chief product and safety officer Marc Choi could confirm. Sitting on the same architecture as the G90, however, is a sign the coupe and convertible could easily slip into production at Hyundai's massive plant in Ulsan, South Korea.

Another reason we might see these two concepts sooner rather than later? The company's leaders see a more diverse style of body type as the first step towards becoming a truly premium brand, and all the pieces for that step up seem in place. As a guest of Genesis, the brand took myself and other journalists to the Genesis Suji space, which displays the brand's cars in a giant vending machine as well as on two gleaming floors showing color combos on every model. Owners take possession of their vehicles via a ceremony complete with Genesis-branded tea and a conveyor belt that presents the car to you.

We wrapped up our visit at the Genesis Lounge inside the famous Shilla Hotel. Here, Genesis G90 Long Wheel Base customers as well as Genesis Black customers can listen to music on insanely expensive speakers and enjoy artfully framed views keeping in line with the Korean aesthetic of appreciation for the simplicity of the landscape. These are spaces primed to bring the brand's One-Of-One customization program to a wider, but still very select, audience. It's the kind of service higher-end buyers have learned to expect from well-heeled brands like Bentley, Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls-Royce. This is the height Genesis is aiming for, and the X Gran Coupe and X Gran Convertible could certainly reach that status if they can get off the ground.

And then there's Genesis' Magma division, which hasn't won any races just yet, but Genesis plans to run cars next year in the WEC and in IMSA the year after that. The development of Magma performance versions of cars like the GV60 will allow Genesis to reach customers that typically go for a BMW M or Mercedes-AMG vehicle. Pair the level of personal attention inherent in the South Korean tradition of son-nim, or honored guest, and you have a 10-year-old brand taking on luxury brands that have been around for over 100 years.

Unfortunately for the brand, reaching for a firm grasp for the gold medal comes during a time of great uncertainty. American tariffs were foremost on every journalist's mind during our stay with Genesis. Almost all Genesis cars are built in the charming seaside city of Ulsan, South Korea, where the automaker operates one of the largest automotive factories in the world, complete with its very own port. President Donald Trump applied a 25% tariff to exports from South Korea, and the country recently enacted emergency measures to support its domestic auto industry. Only time will tell if such measures prop up both the domestic market and exports to places like the U.S., which have been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years.

It's a cost Choi said Genesis is prepared to absorb in the short-term. Plus, as a premium luxury brand, Genesis is better prepared than most to weather economic uncertainty. No matter how bad the economy gets, there are always rich people and they always want newer, more luxurious products — maybe like a fantastic convertible and coupe. Genesis is bringing a new "Prestige Black" package to its upper-segment cars and SUVs that's a nod to the popularity of murdered out machines here in the U.S.

Developing new luxury products and pairing them with performance drivetrains takes time and money. But Genesis, and the Hyundai Motor Group in general, doesn't really take too much time doing things, growing leaps and bounds over the last decade. Genesis posted a 19% bump year-over-year for Q1 just last week. Money is usually where the rubber meets the road. Only two Genesis models are built in the U.S., the GV70 and GV70 Electrified SUVs, which have proven very successful. Hyundai and Kia also build a lot of cars in Alabama and Georgia, including other popular EVs like the Ioniq 5 and EV9, but no other Genesis models have been announced for U.S. production yet.

Then there's tariffs on parts and shipping vessels, as well, but Genesis has been making a plan for this for some time. "We're becoming more global and expanding our footprint in the U.S," Choi said. "We aren't adding any cost to consumers at the moment. We're managing it ourselves and I think we're managing it via dealer incentives in the network. So the tariff is not going to consumers."

However everything is not just susceptible, but extremely likely, to change in the next few weeks as global markets struggle for some sense of normalcy. Genesis is no new guy on the block — Hyundai is as fertile a soil as any "new" luxury automaker could hope for — but it is taking on several ambitious new focuses during a time of excessive upheaval in the automotive industry. Any missteps now could significantly curtail Genesis' plans for the future. Right now, however, it's full steam ahead.

Presidents are arrested, formerly unbreakable trade relationships dissolve, but some ambition is usually made of stronger stuff. Hopefully, we'll continue to see more growth and diversity from the brand that does things a little differently.