Same sharp styling, but this Genesis GV70 EV ditches internal combustion.
The LA Auto Show may be in full swing over here, but that’s hardly the only show hosting debuts. Let’s head over to Guangzhou, China, where the electric Genesis GV70 makes its debut Friday. I drove the 3.5-liter turbocharged model back in October (TL;DR: it’s extremely good), but this version picks up a battery pack and a couple electric motors. The automaker even included some numbers to chew on, though we likely won’t see the final North American specs for a good while yet.
As it happens, the Genesis GV70 EV eschews gasoline without any major changes in the styling department. The crest grille (with Genesis’ “G-Matrix”) pattern is the most obvious alteration, and it includes the car’s charging port. A dual 400V/800V electrical architecture allows drivers to make use of a wide range of charging infrastructure, while the GV70 EV also has a 3,600-watt onboard “Vehicle to Load” feature that allows it to power electric appliances, similar to the Ford F-150’s “ProPower Onboard” system.
Genesis did not mention a specific battery size, but did mention that a 350 kW DC fast charger should be able to regenerate the battery from 10% to 80% in under 20 minutes. What’s more, while the car comes in dual-motor configuration only, it can disconnect the motor and drive shaft to run in 2WD to reduce mechanical drag and improve efficiency. Like their standard crossovers, the Genesis GV70 EV also gets active noise control and a road-reading electronic suspension that can tune the car’s damping based on data from the front camera and navigation system.
Thanks to the electric motors, this GV70 is even quicker.
In certain conditions, the GV70 3.5T is no slouch for a midsize crossover. That said, one of the other numbers Genesis provided was the EV’s 0-60 time. Power and torque figures are still ‘TBA’, but the car should make its 0-60 sprint in 4.5 seconds using “Boost Mode”, if the automaker proves accurate on its claims.
When will the Genesis GV70 EV actually hit North America? It’s impossible to say at this point, though I suspect it will come after the small GV60 makes its own launch. We’ll likely know more about the U.S. specs sometime in 2022, though we’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, check out more on the standard GV70 below: