Subscriber Extra: the Genesis of a naming strategy

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How’s your Genesis knowledge? No, not that one. The posh bit of Hyundai.

I ask because if you already know a bit, then be prepared to have to learn some more, even though the first bunch of the new brand’s cars have barely arrived.

This week, the firm announced its second electric vehicle, and its first based on a bespoke EV platform, called the Genesis GV60.

With it comes what appears to be an update to the brand’s design language – because it doesn’t look like any of the other Genesis models that have barely been launched yet. And it also brings an update to the naming strategy.

In principle, the G stands for Genesis and the V for Versatile, which means it’s a crossover or SUV, but not an estate, even though they’re also quite versatile. But the brand's sole estate car is called the Genesis G70 Shooting Brake.

Then there’s the numbering system, which I think I’ll just hand over to them to explain: “Genesis is evolving its model-naming scheme based on unique design identity of ‘Athletic Elegance’ emphasising athleticism with lower numbers and elegance with higher numbers.”

I don’t know. I’m sorry. Maybe that still just means the bigger the size, the bigger the number – that athletic is small and elegant is big? But what if they make an agile big car or a very luxurious and elegant small one? No idea. 

This is as baffling as Audi’s latest numeric system – which, if you’ll remember, now references power output rather than any capacity, yet which doesn’t relate linearly to bhp or kW either (‘30’ is for models from 107bhp to 127bhp, ‘70’ is for cars with more than 592bhp).

Still, given the GV60 isn’t even on the Genesis website yet, it’s too soon to worry about it. So I’ll go back to trying to keep up with Hyundai’s latest model naming scheme, as introduced by the new Ioniq 5. (There’s going to be a 6 soon.)

Basically, the 5 is from the same company as the Genesis, is based on the same underpinnings as the GV60, and has a new design language that’s better looking than the posh model, and has a more fathomable name. Unless they feel and drive markedly differently, to make you want the posh one, Genesis’s scheduled servicing – where they collect the car from you and drop it back – will have a lot of heavy lifting to do.