Genesis GV60 long-term test: report 3
The Genesis GV60 is one of the best electric SUVs you can buy right now. But can the upmarket tech-fest win over our man who's seeking a comfy family cruiser?...
The car Genesis GV60 168kW RWD single motor (Premium) Run by Stuart Milne, digital editor
Why it’s here Can a sprinkling of ‘premiumness’ elevate the upmarket Genesis GV60 clear of the family SUV pack – and into luxury SUV territory?
Needs to Be as comfortable and quiet as the best electric SUVs, yet offer the all-important tangible appeal buyers of premium models want.
Mileage 10,106 List price £54,105 Target Price £54,105 Price as tested £59,605 Official range 321 miles Test range 300 miles
22 May 2024 – A grand tourer
You never really know someone until you live with them, or so the saying goes. And after 2250 miles behind the wheel of my Genesis GV60, and some initial frustrations with some of the car’s trinkets, the pair of us are finally beginning to gel.
I have a lot of time to reflect on this, with a 140-mile round trip to the office that can – and frequently does – take five hours. The stop-start of the M25 motorway and generally low speeds through central London are ideal for an electric car, where near-silent running and regenerative braking makes the bonkers decisions of road planners a little more bearable.
So when I’m sitting in traffic jams engineered by endless contraflows or closed lanes, the GV60’s seats soothe. In fact, while they grip me in place very comfortably indeed, they occasionally release their pressure for a few seconds before hugging me again. It’s a pleasant sensation and makes it more apparent just how good the seats are.
I like the car’s autonomous driving tech, too. This works really well, and is easy to use: using buttons on the steering wheel, you switch on the cruise control, set the speed and activate the lane-keeping assistance. All the necessary information is shown through the head-up display, which is so clear that I rarely use the car’s main instrument display.
That’s a shame, because that screen is the model of clarity, and depending on the view you’ve selected, uses augmented reality to overlay the route the car is driving on over real-time footage from the car’s cameras. It’s a nice touch, and along with the graphics that show the positioning of other vehicles in the head-up display, gives confidence that the car’s autonomous systems are aware of their surroundings.
What’s less effective are the cameras which beam images from the door mirrors onto the instrument screen. They’re simply in the wrong place to be of much use when turning or changing lanes and are often totally obscured in heavy rain. Fortunately, the blind spots created in the physical mirrors aren't significant.
When I eventually get to the end of my journey, the remaining cameras do a fine job of enhancing all-round visibility. I like the birds-eye view of the car because it makes judging parking spaces really easy, and it’s possible to swipe a graphic of the car to get a 360deg panning view around the car. That’s a lifesaver to avoid kerbing wheels in What Car?'s tight multi-storey car park.
Speaking of visibility, I originally thought that the lack of a rear windscreen wiper was rather strange, but even throughout the unseasonably wet weather this year, the screen remains remarkably clear. Only the early morning dew reduces visibility, but because – presumably – of the aerodynamic styling, the water soon rolls off. I still find the spoiler obscures a little too much of the view out the back, though.
The other secret to long-distance happiness in my GV60? It comes down to good, old-fashioned range. A car which comfortably delivers me 300 miles on a charge means I’ve not had a whiff of range anxiety.
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