Genesis will introduce a compact ‘hatchback’ electric vehicle during second half of 2023. Currently, the initial stage of development of this vehicle is almost complete, so that means that we will see it very soon testing on public roads.
According to our industry sources, Genesis is developing a compact hatchback electric vehicle known as “JE”. It is expected that mass production will begin in July 2023 and will go on sale by September. However, there is a possibility that the release schedule may be changed due to the global supply chain shortage of semiconductors for vehicles.
Despite the codename “JE” was confirmed, specific specifications have not been revealed yet. There are opinions that it might be the G70 or the G70 Shooting Brake electric vehicle version, but Hyundai never attach a completely different codename to just a derivative model, instead they add “e” letter as electric for the codename. The code name of the current G70 is IK. The G70 Shooting Brake is only sold in Europe or Australia for now, but it is expected to be introduced in South Korea soon.
Speaking about how rapidly Genesis could develop and launch a new vehicle, an industry official said, “The dedicated E-GMP platform for electric vehicles, also known as ‘skateboard’, is free to reduce or increase in size, and design changes are easy.” So that’s they key for that “express” development.
In fact, Hyundai Motor Group is developing everything from small SUVs such as the GV60 to large SUVs such as the upcoming Genesis GV90, Hyundai Ioniq 7, and Kia EV9 all in one E-GMP platform. The Ioniq 6 is also an E-GMP electric vehicle.
South Korean luxury brand plans to introduce a total of eight electric and hydrogen electric vehicles by 2030. When the JE is released, the company will secure up to five electric vehicle models, including the GV60, GV70 electric model, GV80 electric model, and G80 electric model.
Now that we discovered that the JE launch is scheduled, it is still unknown which name is going to be used. As GV60 is Genesis’s smaller call, and the V is from SUV, we can expect to be called as G60, a nameplate already trademarked by Genesis.
