Genesis Electrified G80 review: Big limousine goes electric

The Genesis G80 offers big sedan luxury for those not prepared to splash out for a German badge.

Now the most opulent vehicle from the Hyundai-owned luxury brand on offer in Australia is available as an all-electric model that evolves its limousine DNA.

To ensure there’s no confusion, Genesis is calling the all-electric model the Electrified G80, in line with similar moves to call the upcoming electric GV70 the Electrified GV70 (the new GV60 does without the “electrified” tag because it is only sold as an EV).

The Electrified G80 uses the same battery pack and electrical architecture of other Hyundai Group models – including the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Genesis GV60 – but plonks the familiar G80 four-door sedan body on top.

Fresh wheels, bumpers and grille give the Electrified G80 a smoother aerodynamic profile as well as creating some visual differentiation from the petrol versions. There’s also more aluminium used in the body to offset the additional weight of the battery pack that lines the floor.

There are no direct rivals, although the Electrified G80 is priced relatively close to the entry-level Porsche Taycan and upcoming Audi e-Tron GT.

But it comes at a price premium over petrol G80s, albeit with plenty of performance courtesy of a punchy dual-motor setup that provides all-wheel drive.

Value

If you want to shun petrol power with a G80 then it’s a big step up to the Electrified model. Whereas the petrol versions sell for less than $100K (before on-road costs) the Electrified G80 is a hefty $145,000 before costs.

Needless to say, it’s a big leap.

For the money you get 19-inch alloy wheels, smart key entry, head-up display, Nappa leather, heated and ventilated front seats, electrically adjustable front seats, heated steering wheel, heated outer rear seats, digital radio, wireless phone charging and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity (the latter two wired, which makes the wireless phone charging less appealing).

Adaptive cruise control incorporates artificial intelligence to learn your driving style and subtly adjust how close it travels to other vehicles and how quickly it accelerates when running on cruise control.

The infotainment screen measures 14.5 inches across its diagonal and houses a crisp 20-speaker Lexicon sound system.

Those in the rear aren’t overlooked either, with dual 9.2-inch entertainment screens and a detailed controller in the centre arm rest.

The cabin is laced with leather and some interesting wood finishes – including forged wood made of recycled birch from furniture manufacturing. There are seven combinations, some of which are quite bold (green dashboard anyone?).

You can also choose between 11 exterior colours, eight of which are standard while the other three are another $2000.

There’s also a sustainability pitch with some of the materials. Recycled plastics are used to create the roof lining and floor mats and the leather is stained with natural dyes.

As with other Hyundai Group models utilising the E-GMP architecture, the Electrified G80 gets a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function that allows 230V appliances to be powered directly from the car.

Servicing is also included for the first five years or 75,000km.

Owners can also choose whether they want a wallbox charger installed at home for free or get access to a five-year charging subscription across the Chargefox network (the latter good for those who don’t have access to home charging or who already have a wallbox installed).

The Electrified G80 is covered by a five-year unlimited kilometre warranty. However, that warranty coverage drops to 130,000km limit if you use the car for commercial purposes. The high voltage battery is covered by a separate eight-year, 160,000km warranty that guarantees at least 70 percent of the original capacity will be in play after that time.

Servicing is also included for the first five years or 75,000km.

There’s not a whole lot missing, although the Electrified G80 does without a spare wheel and also misses out on a digital instrument cluster, with a fandangled 3D effect instead adding spice to a more traditional analogue display.

Inside the Genesis Electrified G80

While Hyundai, Kia and Genesis have gone radical with their EVs created from the ground up as an electric vehicle, the Electrified G80 – which merges new EV thinking with an existing ICE body – plays things very conservatively.

There are four doors in a traditional sedan shape and despite the newness going on underneath you get some noticeable compromises blending old and new.

There’s still a prominent hump in the rear floor, for example, and despite its lengthy proportions there’s not as much sprawling space as some may wish for in a limousine. Rear head room, in particular, will not impress the six-foot-plussers.

The boot, too, has taken a hit. The electric motor driving the rear wheels protrudes into the luggage space, in turn reducing its volume from 424 litres to 354L.

Up front the space is more generous and there’s some low-slung sedan sportiness.

The controls and buttons keep up that old school presentation, although to be fair it’s all very functional and still looks smart enough.

Performance and efficiency

The Electrified G80 comes with two electric motors making a combined 272kW and 700Nm.

Both are impressive numbers, the sizeable torque peak moreso.

Little surprise that’s the thing you feel most. There’s an effortless rush when you press the throttle.

In the Comfort drive mode it’s quite relaxed in the way it taps into that thrust.

Sport, on the other hand, adds some sharpness and vigour to a prod of the throttle.

Sending the drive to all four wheels means there’s no chance of wheelspin. Instead the Electrified G80 hunkers down and swiftly builds pace.

It’s a deceptively quick machine, able to top 100km/h in 4.9 seconds.

You’re never left wanting for more.

An 87.2kWh battery provides a claimed 520km of range (using the WLTP standard), although no surprises that the real world shaves a bit off that estimate. Still, you should comfortably get 450km between top-ups.

Claimed energy consumption is 19.1kWh per 100km, a figure that’s mostly achievable.

Charging

The 87.2kWh battery can be charged at the more common 400V level as well as the 800V that’s used on some newer EVs. The latter unleashes faster DC charging, although don’t get excited about the 350kW claims from Genesis.

The car cannot charge at that rate, instead topping out at around 240kW.

That’s still quick, and the Electrified G80 can charge from 10 to 80 percent – adding more than 300km of range – in 22 minutes.

AC charging is, naturally, slower and tops out at 11kW. That translates to a full charge in around eight hours.

Charging from a regular 230V powerpoint would take around 40 hours.

There’s also a vehicle-to-load function that provides up to 3.6kW of 230V power. It can power camping gear, computers or even charge another EV (slowly).

Ride and handling

It’s more about comfort than tearing up the tarmac in the Electrified G80, although that to some extent comes down to which drive mode you’ve selected.

In regular Comfort mode it’s quite soft and takes time to recover from bumps. It wafts and wallows but doesn’t exactly scream cornering greatness.

Stiffen the dampers in Sport mode and there’s added control that allows you to better explore what is an impressively capable chassis.

The 19-inch tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport 4s that deliver reassuring grip. Combined with a reassuringly low-slung stance it means you can pitch the Electrified G80 at a corner with the sort of vigour few traditional sedan buyers are likely to take advantage of.

It’s more at home in faster sweeping bends, with the 2.3-tonne heft a gentle reminder that there’s lots of momentum to shift in tighter corners.

Talking point

The roof of the Electrified G80 gets solar panels, which allow it to trickle charge the battery. But rather than the bigger battery used to power the car, it charges only the 12V battery that looks after the ventilation, infotainment and other ancillaries.

Why? Because it doesn’t produce enough power to make a meaningful impact on driving range. The solar panels produce about 200W of power. So even if you got a full eight hours of sun, you’d only add about eight kilometres of range – and that’s assuming the panels are producing their maximum for that full eight hours, which is unlikely.

A full charge of the 87.2kWh battery would take about two months – assuming the car gets maximum sunshine for the whole two months.

So, instead the solar panels can provide power to the ventilation system while the car is parked, in turn helping keep the cabin cool. That will have a very small impact on range.

Safety

The Electrified G80 gets a decent suite of active safety gear, which starts with autonomous auto braking in forward and reverse. There’s also rear cross traffic alert as well as lights that project a beam onto the road behind to give a visual warning that the car is about to reverse.

There’s also blind spot warning and lane keep assist.

Verdict

The Genesis Electrified G80 brings some impressive EV performance to the brand’s large limousine.

But it does so at a big price premium.

And because it shares its traditional four-door body with the regular ICE G80 it misses out on some of the packaging benefits we’ve come to expect with EVs.

While it’s unlikely to tempt the EV early adopters from the latest and greatest, the Electrified G80 could provide a temptation for traditionalists to shuffle away from petrol.

Genesis Electrified G80 specifications

Price: $145,000 plus on-road costs

Basics: EV, 5 seats, 4 doors, sedan, AWD

Range: 520km (WLTP)

Battery capacity: 87.2kWh

Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km (70 percent guarantee of original capacity)

Energy consumption: 19.1kWh/100km

Motors: 1 front and 1 rear, combined outputs 272kW/700Nm

AC charging: 11kW, Type 2 plug

DC charging: 240kW, CCS Combo plug

0-100km/h: 4.9 seconds