Hyundai Genesis dies a slow death in the UK market
While Hyundai Genesis has been doing so well in the US market so much that it has warranted the South Korean company to spin it off as a luxury brand of its own and launch a slew of models in the Genesis name, it seems, the Korean company has not been so much lucky with Genesis in UK. In fact, Hyundai is calling enough is enough and is pulling the plug for its flagship Genesis G80 luxury barge.
According to reports that since 2015, a mere 50 examples of the luxury Hyundai Genesis sedan have been sold in Britain, despite the South Korean company’s attempts to pitch the sedan as a legitimate rival to the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Even with a comparable level of luxury and performance, Hyundai Genesis is finding it very difficult to take the fight to the more premium names and the UK market has clearly rejected the Korean brand’s offering with a 3.8 litre V6 monster.
Talking about Hyundai’s not so tough decision to kill the Genesis in UK, Hyundai UK managing director Tony Whitehorn said such a car and its 3.8-liter V6 simply isn’t in demanded in Europe or the UK.
“The Genesis was never built for the European market, it was conceived for the Korean and American markets. It shows a saloon car with a 3.8-litre engine which is not really what is demanded in Europe, and in particular in the UK.
“We brought it in as much just to sample it: lots of people told us they’d driven a Genesis in America and liked it. It was also available in Australia and had done well there, so it was engineered in right-hand-drive. So we thought fine, let’s trial it and see how it goes,” Whitehorn said.
Hyundai UK officials will have a tough decision ahead whether to launch the ‘Genesis’ brand in the UK market given its success in the US market; even if they launch, it must be some years away and not in the immediate future.
Even in the Indian market, Hyundai has been vary of launching the Genesis sedan as ours is a very brand sensitive one and launching a Hyundai north of 40 lakhs right into Audi-BMW-Merc territory is not going to do Hyundai much favour.
[Source: Carscoops]
