Genesis just built a Rolls-Royce rival with doors that open backwards and no B-pillar
Korea just aimed a flagship straight at Rolls-Royce and Range Rover
Genesis has spent a decade quietly proving it can build a proper luxury car. With the new GV90 it stops being quiet. This is the Korean brand's first full-size flagship SUV, an electric heavyweight pitched at the very top of the market, and it arrives with a party piece nobody else offers: in its most exclusive form, its doors open like a Rolls-Royce, only cleverer.
The doors are the headline
The GV90 comes in two forms: a standard car with conventional doors, and the range-topping Neolun, which introduces what Genesis calls the Neolun Arch Gate. It is described as the world's first independently opening hidden B-pillar coach doors, meaning the front and rear doors swing open in unison with no pillar between them, leaving a huge, unobstructed opening. Where a Rolls-Royce simply hinges its rear doors backwards, Genesis has engineered away the pillar entirely, hiding a reinforced roll cage inside the structure so safety does not suffer. It is a genuine technical flourish, not just a styling trick.
Big, powerful and long-legged
This is a seriously large car, 5,285 mm long on a 3,245 mm wheelbase, putting it right on top of a BMW X7 or Mercedes GLS. It rides on a dedicated flagship electric platform and carries a 123.5 kWh battery, the biggest Hyundai Motor Group has yet fitted, for an estimated 500 km of range in seven-seat form. Dual motors produce 666 hp and 800 Nm, a 350 kW charger takes it from 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes, and there is rear-wheel steering, multi-chamber air suspension and a dual electronic limited-slip differential to keep all that mass composed.
A cabin that shows off through restraint
Inside is where the money shows. The design takes inspiration from Korean moon jar pottery, all calm surfaces and negative space, trimmed in real wood, genuine stone and wool cashmere. Front seats swivel a full 180 degrees when parked and add pulsing massage, a pop-up 23.6-inch OLED screen rises from the dash, and a 25-speaker Bang & Olufsen system with Dolby Atmos handles the sound. The four-seat Neolun Executive Suite goes further still, with a fridge, fold-out tables, privacy blinds and a wood-veneer floor. On the safety side, Genesis claims a world-first roof airbag among twelve airbags in total.
AutoNext Take
The pillarless coach doors will grab every headline, and fairly so, but the more important story is the confidence behind them. For years Genesis has been the polite, sensible alternative to the German establishment, offering a lot of car for the money and a generous warranty. The GV90 abandons that modesty entirely and goes straight for Rolls-Royce, Range Rover and the electric Mercedes and BMW flagships, and on paper it has the substance to back up the ambition. Chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke's idea that true luxury comes from reduction rather than addition is exactly the sort of thinking that separates a genuine luxury car from an expensive one.
The open question is Europe, and it matters. Genesis already sells in markets including Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK and is still expanding across the continent, but it has not yet confirmed exactly when, or where, the GV90 will go on sale, and no price has been announced. Breaking into the ultra-luxury tier is brutally hard, because buyers at this level pay as much for heritage as for engineering, and that is the one thing a young brand cannot simply build in. Even so, the GV90 is the most convincing argument Genesis has ever made that it belongs in that company, and European luxury buyers would be wise to take it seriously.
