Genesis Will Not Get N Performance Versions, Says Boss

Hyundai’s premium Genesis brand will not offer any N high-performance versions, said Manfred Fitzgerald, boss of the Korean premium brand.

Speaking to Motoring at the sidelines of the new G70 debut, Fitzgerald said that Genesis isn’t interested at the moment of expanding the range with different-branded high-performance variants.

“Performance will not be on the same forefront of differentiator as it is today for ICEs,” he said. “Everybody is capable of doing an electric motor and putting it in a car, so the performance values will almost be the same. Nobody’s going to be interested in ‘A’ or ‘B’, so I think that will come down to a level playing field.

“Trying to tack something on top of that, I don’t think that will be rationally, really a wise move.”

Fitzgerald is a strong advocate of electrification and believes that traditional in-house performance brands, like the BMW M, will not have the same appeal for a premium brand as they once did. “I grew up in that era… that was all right at the time. I’m just looking forward to the future and I just don’t believe that that will still have the same power and same meaning as it did back then.”

After all, Genesis wants to go electric as soon as possible and then look at the high-performance aspect of things. “What we said is that we will develop – around 2021, 22 – two dedicated platforms,” Fitzgerald said. “And on those two dedicated platforms we will develop dedicated models.”

Note: Genesis G70 pictured