BERLIN: Until now, if you wanted to buy the Genesis GV70, then you could only get the South Korean SUV as a petrol or diesel. But now Hyundai's sister company plans to offer this upper middle class car as an all-electric vehicle.
Genesis says it is now selling the new electric SUV at prices upwards of €67,300, putting it in direct competition with the BMW iX3 and Mercedes EQC.
The 4.72-metre SUV is available with one electric motor per axle producing 218 hp in normal operation. However, the output can be briefly increased at the push of a button, so that the system output climbs from 436 hp to a total horsepower of 490.
Then the 2.3-tonne five-seater needs only 4.2 seconds instead of 4.8 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100kph, Genesis says.
The top speed is limited to 235kph in any case. But even with that, the GV70 is faster than some of its competitors, as Audi, BMW and Mercedes usually stop their electric off-road vehicles at 200kph at the latest.
The two motors are powered by a battery with a capacity of 77.4 kWh, which is enough for up to 455km in the standard cycle.
Because the batteries have a voltage of 800 volts, they can be charged with up to 350 kW. According to Genesis, this means that it only takes 18 minutes at best to go from 10% to 80%.
Unlike its smaller brother, the GV60, the G70e is not designed from the ground up to be an electric, meaning it offers slightly less space in the rear, for example.
However, the Koreans have kept one characteristic of their electric models in the conversion: unlike its German rivals, the GV70 also has a so-called frunk and offers more storage space under the front bonnet.
