Blog

Aug 20, 2023

Genesis Electrified GV70 SUV review: mileage, charging, luxury specs; better than gas engine

2024 Genesis Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige vs. 2024 Lexus RZ 450e Luxury EV: So luxurious they’re everything you want in an SUV? This week: 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70 Price: $75,275 as tested.

2024 Genesis Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige vs. 2024 Lexus RZ 450e Luxury EV: So luxurious they’re everything you want in an SUV?

This week: 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70

Price: $75,275 as tested. Fancy gray paint added $1,500, and the Prestige Package, $6,800 (more on its features throughout).

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver likes the “elegant styling, uncompromised cabin space, punchy acceleration,” but the magazine is disappointed that “rivals offer more range,” and that there is an “odd brake feel, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto don’t work wirelessly.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Luxuriously detailed, elegantly electrified.”

Reality: Pretty, fast, and fun — and even better than the gasoline version — but anxiety-provoking.

Competition: Besides the RZ 450e, there’s the Tesla Model Y, BMW iX, Rivian R1S, Audi e-Tron among others in the luxury EV SUV category.

What’s new: The whole thing, for 2023 — or at least the whole powertrain. The gasoline-powered GV70 is the midsize SUV from Genesis, and it received 2022 SUV of the year from Motor Trend. It wasn’t as well received in these parts.

Genesis did show some real EV chops with the smaller GV60 SUV.

Up to speed: The Electrified GV70 featuring 160 kw motors in front and rear is what the GV70 wishes it could be — smooth, powerful, solid. Car and Driver notes that it takes just 3.8 seconds to really roar to 60 — and it goes waaaay beyond that without even trying. Just hit the switch to Sport mode and let it fly. In fact, you can hardly stop it flying.

The plain old gasoline versions take 5.5 or 6 seconds, depending on the engine.

Running the vehicle in Eco mode during one range-anxious trip, I found the performance to still be quite nice on highways, even on the hilly beltway north of Baltimore.

Shiftless: The gear selector is a dial with Reverse in one direction, Drive in the other, and a Park button in the middle, a better setup than a simple dial. But the dial is sized the same as the infotainment dial in front of it, so beware of confusion. (The GV60 addresses this with an attention-grabbing globe that transforms into the gearshift dial upon startup.)

On the road: The heavy batteries pulling the vehicle to the road are definitely helping the handling here. The GV70 is not a small SUV, but it handles like a sports sedan. I felt comfortable slipping through tight turns and roundabouts and around corners in ways I’d never have dreamed with the gas version.

A 250-mile round trip to central Maryland was comfortable. The vehicle performs well on highways, with a smooth ride even over rough surfaces.

Range: This is a little disappointing at just 250 miles. Further, the juice drained more quickly for me, using about 170 miles for a 125-mile trip, although I wasn’t driving at all conservatively.

I kept it mostly in Eco mode on the way back and kept the speedometer closer to the posted 70-mph speed limit. This time the vehicle used about 90 miles for the 125-mile return trip from Frederick, Md. (Travel tip: This is a cute town, with a nice river park, quaint downtown, and excellent restaurant options. Why didn’t I know about this place?)

Complicating matters, ChargePoint told me it added 120 miles while the vehicle was parked, but the vehicle itself only registered about 80. This put me in a more fretful state of mind, because I now had only 160 miles for a 125-mile return trip.

And this is why a stated 250-mile range is a problem, at least until charging access becomes ubiquitous.

Driver’s Seat: The nicest part about Sport mode is feeling the seat wings tighten around you as the speedometer changes to red. You can tell it’s going to be serious.

The seat is comfortable and supportive covered in Nappa leather, part of the $6,800 Prestige Package.

The gauges are pretty, but the speedometer is small. A digital readout is almost a necessity; it’s among the gauge choices, but why have the speedometer at all?

Friends and stuff: Mrs. Passenger Seat admired the interior every time she sat inside, definitely a favorite of hers.

The rear seat is as handsome and comfortable as the front seats. Long Sturgis Kid 4.0 made the trip in the back without squawking, saying it had plenty of room. Those seats are also heated courtesy of the Prestige Package.

Cargo space is 56.5 cubic feet with the seat folded and 28.7 with the seat up.

Play some tunes: The console dial controls the stereo, but the display is a touchscreen as well. I find a combination of the two works best — the touchscreen is far away, but the dial can be cumbersome in some situations.

Silver rollers control sound and tuning, and they’re a bit of a pain. The 12.3-inch touchscreen is large, added as part of the Prestige Package as well.

Sound from the Lexicon premium audio system is really good, maybe an A.

Keeping warm and cool: The HVAC operates through a small screen below infotainment, with dials for the temperature setting and touchscreen haptics for everything else. The dashboard is pretty much wrapped in blower, but it seems easy to keep from blasting in your face.

Where it’s built: Montgomery, Ala.

How it’s built: Consumer Reports offers no reliability data for the Electrified GV70 yet, but the GV60 and gas-powered GV70 both garner a 3 out of 5.

Next week: How does the Lexus RZ 450e compare?