The Genesis G70 Goes on Sale September 15th… In Korea

You must wait a little while longer, but we’ll soon have a much better idea of what the Genesis G70 will look like. The entry-level sports sedan from Hyundai’s upmarket Genesis division debuts in its South Korea home market next Friday, September 15, 2017, at an event at Seoul’s Olympic Park.

In fact, in advance of the unveiling in Korea, we already have a clearer view of the Genesis G70, thanks to the timely response of one Michael Giele, who spotted the new Genesis sedan and posted images to Twitter.

Destined to provide the next major shakeup in the small luxury sports sedan sector after the Alfa Romeo Giulia, Jaguar XE, and Cadillac ATS arrived with great expectations, the Genesis G70 will be tasked with challenging the Infiniti Q50 and Lexus IS, more likely than not with more equipment and lower MSRPs. It won’t be easy for Hyundai’s Genesis brand, so the car had better look good.

Eerste non-camo foto’s hier; https://t.co/erL2pDO33j @AutoWeek @autozinenl @AutobahnEU

— Michael Giele (@MichaelGiele) September 3, 2017

Of course, the Q50 and IS are only two of the G70’s potential alternatives. “With the G70, we are targeting European premium car brands,” Hwang Chung-yul, Genesis Project Management Center’s senior vice president, said this past weekend. Not surprisingly, Chung-yul cites the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and Audi A4 as key rivals.

To date, 13 months since launching in America, Genesis Motors USA has sold 20,314 copies of the G90 and G80. That’s a hint of a fraction of a slice in a U.S. luxury market that’s seen more than 86,000 C-Classes and 118,000 Lexus RXs leave dealers during the same time period. The G70 is yet another sedan for a company that’s attempted to slowly carve out a luxury image in a shrinking corner of the luxury market. The GV80, Genesis’ first utility vehicle, is still on the other side of the horizon.

But the G70, expected in America early in 2018 Q1, will be Genesis Motors’ volume hope. It will be a massive challenge for Hyundai’s premium division, already undergoing serious shifts in its questionable approach to the U.S. market, to elbow its way into a German-dominated category. Besides Infiniti’s successful incursion way back in 2002 and Lexus’ foray with the IS roughly half a decade earlier, the competition has grown ever more fierce with aforementioned vehicles from Cadillac, Jaguar, and Alfa Romeo.

None of these cars challenge the C-Class and 3 Series/4 Series for top-selling honors, but each car steals a section of the market Hyundai intended for its Genesis G70.

[Image: Michael Giele/Twitter]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.