From 2025 to 2030, Genesis will continue to sell combustion engine vehicles but won’t launch any new ones. Genesis’ first EVs will come to the U.S. next year as the Electrified G80 sedan and GV60 compact crossover.
Future Genesis EVs could share a platform with Hyundai’s coming Ioniq 5 sedan and Ioniq 7 three-row crossover that are due to arrive by 2025.
The abrupt change did not faze retailer Mike Sullivan, CEO of LAcarGuy auto group in Southern California.
Sullivan acquired his first Genesis dealership this summer because of the brand’s commitment to an electric and zero-emission future. If Genesis was just another luxury brand with combustion engines and vague plans for electrification, he said, the franchise would not have been nearly as attractive.
“The EV move was really a major reason I took them on,” Sullivan told Automotive News. The longtime dealer, who operates 13 stores, is one of the first Genesis dealers to commit to a full-service, standalone dealership. Generally, Genesis dealers operate out of Hyundai stores. Sullivan’s new dealership will replace the temporary location of Genesis Santa Monica that he opened in July.
“In California, it makes absolute sense,” said Sullivan, also a Toyota dealer who was a top seller of the Prius when it was a hot commodity and whose Volkswagen dealership is now a top seller of the ID4 crossover EV. “We’re bringing EV cars to market about the same time as the customer is coming around. It’s evolving in a really natural way.”
Over on the East Coast, Peter Lanzavecchia of Genesis of Cherry Hill in Marlton, N.J., mostly agrees. He owns the Genesis store in addition to Burns Hyundai and Burns Buick-GMC. He is supportive of the move to EVs by the Korean automaker — as long as it takes into account what is happening with consumer demand on dealer lots.
