How good does the Genesis G80 Magma look?
And it's powered by a 500hp twin-turbo V6. And you can buy it. Just not here
It is difficult to launch a new automotive brand in the UK. Or it is difficult to do it successfully. There are many different factors at play, not least a ruthlessly contested and already saturated marketplace. People often like to cite Hyundai (and Kia) as terrific examples of how you elbow yourself some significant sales volume, but people tend to forget that Hyundai arrived in the UK in 1982. So it takes a minute. You need the right conditions (a global financial crash helped focus attention on more affordable cars) you need the right brand proposition (Hyundai produced well-made affordable cars) and you need the right product (remember when the i10 suddenly started selling like toilet paper in a pandemic?).
Hyundai’s (and Kia’s) dramatic expansion in the UK equipped it with the confidence to introduce Genesis to Europe in 2021; a fairly gutsy move on the basis that its high-end division had only existed as a standalone brand since 2015. Nearly 40 years of slow-burn UK experience must’ve helped with expectation setting, and presumably it expected to start small. The problem - or one of them, at least - is that it also started a little too worthily; there’s a lot of electrified (and fully electric) practicality in a competitively priced lineup of saloons and SUVs - but precious little to electrify your buying instinct.
Evidently, Genesis has identified the problem, because last week at the New York Auto Show (the US being its key market) it introduced a whole series of Magma-branded performance variants. These were clustered around a heavily modified and slammed GV60 concept that is almost certainly intended to share in the Hyundai Ionia 5 N’s 650hp performance dividend. And while that was just a show car, Genesis reckons that in the fullness of time it expects every model in its lineup to be on the receiving end of the Magma treatment - which, if going on the startlingly headway made by N division, is almost certainly a good thing.
But the reveal wasn’t all about the brave new world you can expect in 18 months time; Genesis also showed off the Genesis G80 Magma, a car that it mysteriously suggested was developed by ‘a select number of partner companies with expertise in high-performance vehicles’. It didn’t go into exhaustive detail - in fact, it didn’t say very much of anything - except to confirm that it would be exclusively for sale in the Middle East. Subsequently, it turns out that it will probably be limited to just 20 units in the UAE. This seems a shame when you consider that it’s powered by a 3.5-litre T-GDi V6 that may (or may not) have been turned up to 500hp. And on 21-inch wheels with a unique bodykit, looks the business. Imagine, for a second, this on a plinth in UK showrooms. In a faltering saloon market, Genesis might easily have sold 20 - and earned plenty of coverage, too. And popped up on the enthusiast radar ahead of schedule. Right car, right time, wrong place. Shame.
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