Genesis GV90 hides the B-pillar and still will not print a price

The rear door at the Palace of Fine Arts did not swing. It popped a few centimetres off the body, then rotated open, taking the B-pillar with it. Front and rear leaves can do that together. Genesis chose 19 August in San Francisco to show that mechanism on a production SUV, the GV90, and Hyundai Motor Group executive chair Euisun Chung called it “not simply a new vehicle, but a new vision for luxury mobility.” The journalists packed around the cars wanted to know whether the trick survives a crash test, and what anyone will be asked to pay.

Genesis is actually selling two cars. The standard GV90 uses ordinary swing doors and can be ordered as a seven-seater. The GV90 Neolun gets the Arch Gate: independently opening, rear-hinged coach doors with no visible B-pillar when they are apart. The company says a dual-motion hinge slides the rear door out first so it does not clip the front, then high-strength steel beams and a cabin frame 1.5 times thicker than usual restore crash performance once everything latches. A 12-airbag suite includes a roof bag that covers the glass in a rollover, which Genesis bills as a first.

Tom Baker of Chasing Cars, walking the Neolun at the premiere, kept coming back to the mass that engineering implies. He put a fully loaded car around 3.5 tonnes. On the TFLEV walkaround, Sofyan and Tommy kept double-taking at how little had been lost between the 2024 Neolun concept and the car in front of them — Sofyan had to say out loud that it was the production version. CarSauce’s presenter, filming the hinge in a crush of people, described a Cinderella coach door that only grows a B-pillar when it shuts. Rolls-Royce already sells rear-hinged doors; GreenCars’ Sam Abuelsamid pointed out those still have a pillar. Genesis claims this pair can open independently.

Underneath sits eMP, a Genesis-only flagship platform. The battery is 123.5 kWh, the largest Hyundai Motor Group has put in an EV. Dual motors make 490 kW and 800 Nm — 240 kW and 350 Nm up front, 250 kW and 450 Nm at the rear — with electronic limited-slip differentials on both axles, multi-chamber air suspension and active rear-axle steering. Official dimensions: 5,285 mm long, 2,030 mm wide, a 3,245 mm wheelbase. That is a full-size SUV, not a stretched GV80.

Range is the number that does not quite keep up. Genesis quotes about 500 km, roughly 310 miles, for the seven-seat GV90 on its own internal tests. There is no EPA figure. Abuelsamid flagged that 310-mile claim as an R&D estimate and noted a native NACS port with a claimed 10-to-80 per cent charge in about 22 minutes on a 350 kW stall. Baker did the average and made it 219 kW — a figure that leans on his own guess of about 115 kWh usable, since Genesis has not published that number — and said it looks dated next to the megawatt charging Chinese brands keep promising. TFLEV compared the target with Cadillac’s Escalade IQ and its 400-plus-mile ratings, and guessed the coach-door Neolun would land under 300. CarSauce put the top spec at about 5.1 seconds to 100 km/h — plenty of kilowatts, he said, for a vehicle that still is not that fast. Genesis itself did not quote a 0–60.

There is no start button. Pull the handle and the car wakes; press the brake and a column stalk drops from 12 o’clock to 2 o’clock so you can select a gear. A 25-inch head-up display replaces the cluster. The centre OLED sits at 23.6 inches in Drive, then rises 90 mm when parked into a 24.6-inch Cinematic Display — Baker timed it against the 22-minute charge window as a streaming screen. Bang & Olufsen fits 25 speakers and Dolby Atmos. The Neolun Executive Suite adds 180-degree motorised front seats that face the rear when parked, a wood-veneer floor with radiant heating Genesis compares to Korean ondol, a refrigerator, and a Smart Vision Roof that frosts in six zones.

CarSauce waited through the swivel-seat routine and wondered, not unkindly, how often anyone actually wants the front passenger spun around for a conference. Baker was more interested in the materials: semi-aniline leather as standard, open-pore wood, genuine stone, wool cashmere, and build quality he argued has gone backwards at some German rivals. Tommy at TFLEV called the design one of the boldest he had seen in a long time.

Genesis has not published a U.S. price. Genesis’ American site already badges it a 2028 model. GreenCars expects first customer cars in early 2027; Baker has North America, Europe and Australia in the first half of that year. TFLEV noted Genesis would not confirm the model year on the night. Estimates at the reveal ran from GreenCars’ roughly $80,000 opener and at-least-$150,000 Neolun, to TFLEV’s $90,000 floor, to Baker’s A$200,000 seven-seater and A$250,000 Neolun. Those are guesses. What is not a guess is the competitive set: Mercedes GLS, BMW X7, Range Rover, Cadillac Escalade IQ — and, unlike the Germans, no V8 on the order sheet. The GV90 launches electric-only. José Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, used the night to remind the room that Genesis reached one million sales faster than any other luxury brand, in less than eight years.

Chung’s line about luxury as human freedom will be tested by a weight figure reviewers keep rounding to three and a half tonnes, a range number that still needs an EPA sticker, and a door that has to prove it is a structure rather than a party trick. Until Genesis prints the price, the honest verdict from San Francisco is the one Baker left hanging: as a slightly cheaper alternative to a Range Rover Autobiography, you might consider it. As a Korean Maybach, it still has to say what the Maybach costs.