Hyundai has launched all-new luxury brand called Genesis

Hyundai's Genesis luxury brand plans to enter the plug-in hybrid market and overthrone giants like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

6/3/16 5:00 am chumakdenis 1

Luxury brands isn’t something new.

Toyota has Lexus brand, Volkswagen has Porsche and starting from now on, Hyundai has Genesis.

It’s no brainer that luxury EV market segment is much more lucrative than the ordinary one.

Of course, everyone wants to get slice of this pie, even our well-beloved Elon.

So, Hyundai decided to not stand out from the crowd in this matter and has launched Genesis brand.

Well, let’s learn what we know about it.

Genesis

Hyundai's Genesis luxury brand is barely off the ground, but it already plans to enter the plug-in hybrid market-- a move that echoes the alternative-fuel strategies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

“The Hyundai and Genesis brands are working on multiple plug-in hybrids that will be an intermediate step before hydrogen fuel cell vehicles take hold in the coming decades”, Dave Zuchowski, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said in an interview.

"Some of those plug-in hybrids will take the form of the Genesis side of our business," Zuchowski added. "We believe alternative-propulsion engines are going to be really important -- even more important in the luxury market than they are in the mainstream market."

Similarity with BMW and Mercedes-Benz

The approach is similar to those of BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, which offer plug-in hybrid variants of some core vehicles.

Other luxury brands, including Cadillac,Volvo, Audi and Infiniti, plan to add a cord to various models in the coming years.

Zuchowski declined to identify which Genesis vehicles would get plug-in hybrid variants.

The Genesis lineup

The Genesis lineup currently includes the full-size sedan G90, the midsize sedan G80 and soon to get a compact sedan (G70) as well as two crossovers (by 2020).

Why did the company choose to focus on hybrids?

Plug-in hybrids appeal to automakers for their fuel economy and extremely low carbon dioxide emission numbers -- dioxidies are even lower than those of diesels.

Consumers relish them because the vehicles' internal combustion engines eliminate range anxiety.

Indeed, plug-in hybrids have been a rare bright spot for green-vehicle sales in 2016, jumping 40 percent in the first quarter vs. the same period in 2015, according to Edmunds.com.