With No Immediate Plans For Genesis, Hyundai UK Drops Genesis, Awaits Genesis Of Genesis

“The Genesis was never built for the European market,” Hyundai UK director Tony Whitehorn says. “It was conceived for the Korean and American markets.”

And now, with the second-generation Hyundai Genesis sedan languishing in the United Kingdom while Hyundai launches the Genesis brand in North America, the Hyundai Genesis Americans now know as the Genesis G80 has been discontinued as in the UK.

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Autocar reports that the Genesis brand, meanwhile, doesn’t have a concrete launch date in the UK, though there were earlier intentions for Hyundai to debut Genesis in 2018.

Only 50 — not 5,000, not 500, just 50 — copies of the Hyundai Genesis have been sold across the UK since 2015. Hyundai sells more than 8,300 vehicles per month in the UK.

Limiting the launch of the Genesis brand in the UK is the absence of right-hand-drive models in the current Genesis fleet. Moreover, Hyundai UK recognizes one key limiting factor that continues to hamper the brand’s chances of near-term success in the United States: Genesis launched without an SUV.

The ungainly GV80 Concept from 2017’s New York International Auto Show isn’t in the immediate offing. Whitehorn told Autocar late last year, “When we bring out the SUV, there will be more interest.”

Hyundai UK believes annual sales would need to rise above 5,000 units to justify a unique dealer network. If Genesis launched in the UK by selling the vehicles through Hyundai dealers, the instant loss of status would be disastrous.

“The challenge for us,” says Whitehorn, “is that this market is dominated by German manufacturers.” Indeed, Genesis must steal sales from the German luxury trio of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. They’re the UK’s fourth, fifth, and sixth-best-selling auto brands outright.

Genesis, meanwhile, has largely proven capable of stealing U.S. sales from its spiritual predecessor, Lexus. Unfortunately, in the UK, there just aren’t many Lexus sales to steal. For every Lexus sold in the UK in the first-half of 2017, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have sold 44 vehicles.

“The Genesis of today is more of an American car,” Whitehorn says. While the current car was installed in Hyundai UK’s lineup as a trial, the trial did not go particularly well.

In the United States, the new Genesis brand has sold 9,919 sedans so far this year: 7,666 G80s and 2,253 G90s.

[Image: Hyundai UK]

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.