Following the news that South Korean luxury automaker Genesis plans to completely phase out internal combustion engines by 2025;

Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“With this move, Genesis will join the league of other luxury brands such as Audi Volkswagen Korea and Jaguar, which also recently announced  plans to go all-electric and achieve their carbon neutrality targets.

“The transition, though quicker than other luxury automakers, is completely inclined with Hyundai Group’s new business priorities announced under its ‘Strategy 2025’ that aims to focus on smart mobility, electric, fuel cell and sell 560K electric vehicles (EVs) annually by 2025. The mid-to-long-term strategy is aimed to introduce a dedicated BEV model and a derived EV model in 2021 for Genesis, which seems to be quite on track.

“Genesis plan seems to be a right strategic decision by Hyundai. The brand at present is primarily sold in the US and South Korea and is set to discover the European market – all with a high appetite for EVs. Genesis, which was launched in 2015, has slowly been creating a niche in the luxury car segment globally and successfully competing with leaders such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. The soaring sales volumes in the US and the domestic market are evident about growing brand’s popularity.

“In the domestic market, there has been a significant increase in demand for high-end electric cars given the conducive government policies and robust purchasing power. Tesla gained popularity in South Korea and soared volume charts for EVs, since then, other OEMs have been following the trail with increasing their luxury EV line-up to be a part of growth. Apart from Tesla’s Model 3 and the recently launched Model Y, Automakers such as Audi with models including RS e-tron & RS e-tron GT and VW with ID.4 has increased premium/high-end EV options for the South Korean customers. Audi launched cars Audi e-tron 50 quattro and Audi e-tron spotback 50 quattro back this May 2021 and e-tron GT & RS e-tron GT are scheduled to be launched later this year.

“Genesis with its all-electric line-up will compete with other luxury brands to gain a competitive edge in its core markets and Europe.”