Genesis Essentia Concept: an electric sports car that will surprise you

With the Genesis Essentia Concept unveiled at the New York Motor Show, the luxury brand of Hyundai is aiming at premium GTs with a spectacular design and an electric propulsion system.

We know little about the technical specifications of the Essentia Concept, which Genesis, the new luxury vehicle division of Hyundai, unveiled at the New York Motor Show. Well, we do know one very important thing: beneath its carbon-fibre monocoque it hides… more than one electric motor.

The brand doesn’t go into much more detail, except that the batteries are housed in the central tunnel instead of under the floor.

The Genesis Essentia Concept is an elegant and sporty GT with electric propulsion

Not a single detail about the position of the electric motors, their number, the total power of the system, or the range. Playing at guesswork, if we look closely at the images and zoom in on the instrumentation, two key figures give us some clues: the speedometer is stopped at 175 mph, roughly 270 km/h.

And the range indicator has stopped at 232 mph, which is more than 370 km of range. There you have it… at the very least.

The only thing the brand hints at is that the Genesis Essentia Concept would flirt with high-performance sports cars, whether electric or not, with an estimated 0 to 100 km/h acceleration just barely beating the 3-second mark.

And even without knowing its main figures, the Essentia Concept impresses with a spectacular design, to which not a single detail would need changing if the rumours about Genesis’s intention to put this model into series production were confirmed, something that would not happen before 2021.

If the decision depends on the reaction this GT provoked among the public attending in New York, we can take it as done.

Its design conveys more elegance than sportiness. And one cannot deny an originality that means the Genesis Essentia Concept doesn’t remind you of any other car among the great GTs. Personally, I prefer the front to the rear. And also the vertical door opening system, or the transparent roof.

Inside, we see something that will become increasingly common in future production cars, especially in the upper segment: all screens, and almost no buttons.

Genesis fully exploits the conceptual side of the model to speak about the future with technical solutions that are already part of the present, such as connectivity with other vehicles or with the environment, and the application of artificial intelligence so that the car learns the driver’s habits and preferences. Something we have already seen, for example, in the new Audi A8.

Other proposals are just around the corner, such as facial or biometric recognition, to completely do away with the traditional key that gives us access to the vehicle.

Image gallery of the Genesis Essentia Concept