A new report coming from South Korea said that Genesis G70 could be discontinued and will not have a second generation after all. The model, manufactured by Hyundai Motor, is Korea’s first luxury sports sedan and the first independent car under the Genesis brand that debuted in 2015.
“Recently, there was an official announcement within the company that it officially halted the development of RN2, a project name for the next G70,” a source directly related to the project said. “This is the first time Hyundai announced the halt, although there were so many rumors about the temporary halt of the development,” the source added. And weak sales is the main reason.
Remember that like a year ago we were talking about this and the information we shared was that Genesis will update again the G70 and released it in May 2023, while keep working on a second generation all electric sedan codenamed as RN2.
The latest G70, introduced in May, is a facelift version with no significant changes exteriorly and interiorly. Facelifts are normally introduced every two to three years, meaning the model’s next facelift will take place in late 2025 or 2026 if it is planned.
But Genesis announced last year that all Genesis vehicles will be purely electric starting from 2025. “In the early stages of development, the next G70 was about to get much bigger than the current model,” the source said. “But in that case, it will not be notably different from G80, and that’s why Hyundai decided to drop the project.”
Updated G70 consists in a new 2.5-liter Turbo engine and some HVAC improvements
Sales of the G70 have sharply declined in recent years amid the increasing demand for more spacious sedans and SUVs. First introduced in 2017, the G70 got off to a running start with a total of 4,345 units sold in only four months of introduction.
Sales grew to 14,417 in 2018 and 16,975 in 2019 but started to slide in 2020, with only 7,910 G70s sold, down 54.4 percent on year. Sales fell to 7,429 in 2021 and 6,087 in 2022. The situation continues to worsen, with a total of 2,099 G70s sold this year through the end of June, down 26.3 percent on year.
In European markets, only 96 units were sold in the whole of 2022, although Genesis launched a wage-style strategic G70 Shooting Brake specifically targeting European drivers. A total of 144 G70s were sold through the end of April 2023.
So what do you think, will Genesis kill the new generation G70 with models like the Tesla Model 3 with record sales?
Sources: Korea JoongAng Daily
