Electrifying its already excellent luxury SUV, the suitably-named Electrified GV70 maintains the styling, luxury, and power of its gas counterpart quite well.
Genesis has an electric car strategy, and it’s working: Start with a well-respected gas model, oust the internal combustion engine, and replace it with a fully-EV drivetrain. It’s a recipe that has worked for the Electrified G80, and now the well-received GV70 crossover SUV gets the same treatment.
The result is the 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70, and its name is the most awkward thing about it. Starting at $65,850 (plus $1,125 destination), it picks up where the standard GV70 (which runs from $43,150 to $65,150 before options) leaves off. At first glance, you’d be excused for not noticing the differences between the two variants, too. As with the bigger G80 sedan, Genesis intentionally keeps distinguishing features minimal between the drivetrain types.
Just as with the Electrified G80, though, the Electrified GV70 makes a strong case from the outset that EV is absolutely the way to go. Part of that is electrification’s general advantages in the luxury segment: speed, refinement, and quietness. Yet the way Genesis implements all that can’t be ignored.Few EV giveaways
The GV70 is a good looking SUV. Curvaceous without sacrificing too much in the way of practicality, its long hood, swooping roofline, and bold side creases have a faintly nautical look to them, like a yacht sailing at speed through ocean waves. Genesis’ now-familiar lighting design — quad-element headlamps at the front, and narrow glowing slashes for the taillamp clusters at the rear — adds some visual glitter.
Those headlamps flank one of the primary distinguishing style features to help tell the Electrified GV70 and its gas sibling apart. The shield-esque Genesis grille is just as large and bold as before, but rather than open mesh, it has a larger, blocked-out diamond pattern. A chunk of that, when pushed, hinges open to reveal the charger port.
At the rear, meanwhile, the absence of tailpipes is the biggest giveaway. Genesis skips EV-specific badging — though the trunk-spanning «GENESIS» is hardly subtle.One drivetrain, and it’s a good one
You could forgive the automaker for crowing, too, as the drivetrain itself is a swell one. There’s a single configuration, with dual motors for all-wheel drive, and the same 429 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque as the smaller Genesis GV60 crossover. No surprise there, given the Electrified GV70 relies on the same EV platform.
As in other Genesis models, there are a variety of drive modes including a punchier Sport setting. At the base of the steering wheel, though, is a button no gasoline Genesis gets: «Boost.» Hit that, and you get 10 seconds of 482 horsepower to play with (along with some amusing dashboard graphics for the countdown).
The result is, as we’ve come to expect from EVs in general, the sort of straight line perkiness that leaves «performance» gas cars often looking laggardly. Instantaneous torque shoves the Electrified GV70 forward with eagerness: it’s not quite the guts-rearranging affair of some electric models, but it’s definitely not slow — and absolutely gives the EV an advantage over even the larger 3.5-liter V6 engine option in the regular GV70.Swift and smooth
The Electrified GV70 is, unsurprisingly, heavier than its gasoline compatriot, though only by around 600 pounds.
