WHEELS & WATER
X FACTOR
Chris Nixon explores the luxury sub-brand car market.
WHAT DO YOU DO when you want a new car and COVID has hacked mercilessly at your retirement investments or your business income has dropped becuase of the pandemic? Adjust your sights, of course. More than a few drivers in the recent past, including a couple of colleagues who formerly drove Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, have become enthusiastic owners of the Koreanbuilt Kia Stinger GT. For those who don't know it, the aptly-named Stinger is a head-turning, mid-size sedan that goes more like a BMW than a Kia. For less than $64,000 RRP, it delivers a 0-100 kmh time under five seconds, nifty roadholding and a seven-year warranty. This article isn’t about the Stinger, but it’s the car that has cracked open the door to a wider view of alternatives to the usual choice of European prestige nameplates. Heard of Genesis?
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You certainly will if the company follows through into production with the X Concept just revealed at the Shanghai motor show. Genesis is to Hyundai what Lexus is to Toyota – a luxury sub-brand (don’t mention Nissan’s Infiniti, which has failed twice in the Australian market). It’s gained headlines around the world because not many people realised a Korean manufacturer was capable of producing a striking, electric-powered, two-door GT coupe. The X Concept could be a suitable flagship stablemate to the Hyundai-made Genesis cars already on sale in Australia. Again, too few people know about the G70 and G80 sedans and GV80 SUV, but media reviewers have offered plenty of praise for their value and quality compared to traditional Europeans. Buyers seeking something a little different to the German Big Three will find plenty to like
in Genesis, especially when the just-revealed pure-electric G80 lands here early next year. While the Genesis X Concept coupe is still only a concept, the queue of buyers for Kia’s EV6 should be instant and long – because while it has the dazzling looks of a motor show concept, it’s in fact the production-ready version due on sale in the third quarter of this year. If the Stinger turned heads when it reached Australia in 2018, the EV6 should move image perceptions of Korean cars a big step forward. There’s no word on price yet, but estimates have suggested at least $100,000. And wouldn’t you pay that for something that looked so sharp, reached 100 kmh in 3.5 seconds and ran up to 510 kms on a single battery charge? Most people know that Hyundai and Kia motor vehicles are cousins under the skin, coming from the same vast Hyundai industrial corporation that also builds everything from high-speed trains to supertankers.
