For me, the most important factor when it comes to electric cars is: can it get me to Houston on one charge? That is, admittedly, a parochial concern, but I live in Austin, and Houston is the nearest big city where a one-charge drive would be a challenge. San Antonio is only 80 miles away. If your electric car can’t get you to San Antonio, then you’ve got a real problem.
I was able to test this out with a new model, the Genesis Electrified GV70, a few weeks ago. I drove to Houston, where I unsuccessfully played in three poker tournaments, but successfully went to some art galleries with my wife and ate the best breakfast I’ve had all year. But back to the car. Genesis advertised this vehicle as having an electric range of 236 miles. They dropped it off with about 225 in the battery, and Houston is around 180 miles away from my house. I am happy to report that the Genesis Electrified GV70 did, in fact, get me to Houston. It was close, and the warning light came on toward the end of the drive. But I got there.
This may not seem like much of an accomplishment. An electric car in 2024 should be able to make a 200-mile drive without inducing range anxiety. But the GV70 is a rather large car. It’s nearly 15-and-a-half feet long, and more than six feet wide with a curb weight of more than 5,000 pounds. We should be lauding the fact that a car that size can produce up to 429 horsepower using dual electric motors. This may seem commonplace now, but a decade ago, it was an impossibility.
Somewhere along the way, Genesis became an aspirational brand, and driving this GV70, I could see why. The all-white leather interior was creamy and relaxing; the automotive equivalent of a spa day in a soundproofed room. With the touch of my finger on a button below my left hip, I activated a seat massager that gently kneaded my bum as I cruised down I-10, listening to updates on the NBA trade deadline. It was a dream.
It wasn’t a challenging drive; mostly a straight shot on toll roads and I-10, with intermittent traffic, so I had ample opportunity to deploy the self-driving tech and cruise control. It just zipped along, stopping when it needed to, quickly draining the battery because highway driving does that to electric cars. Luckily for me, it was the kind of driving for which you make a car like the GV70. Even though it’s fast enough, it’s not a sports car. You don’t get an electric luxury SUV for the handling and because it’s easy to park on city streets. This vehicle isn’t small, and it’s not agile. I was basically my own chauffeur.
Because we live in a ridiculous bubble time in automotive history, suspended between the combustion and electric eras, I had to go to Walmart to charge my car before I reached my final destination. This means I overshot the hotel by 10 miles, pulled into a slot in the parking lot and plugged in. My range had dipped below 20 miles, and I needed to get it to 80 percent, so it was going to be about half an hour and $35 before I could get on with my day.
As I waited, a gentleman stood next to me, charging his equally enormous and equally bone-white Mercedes SUV.
“Can I see your car?” he asked.
I’m always happy to show off what’s not actually mine, so I opened it up and let him look at the interior and the ample cargo bay.
“That’s very nice,” he said. “It’s actually nicer than my car. Do you mind me asking how much it cost?”
I told him that it runs between $65,000 and $72,000, depending on the package you choose. I didn’t tell him that I’d driven a Lexus electric SUV the week before that cost almost exactly the same amount, but wasn’t nearly as good.
“That’s less than what I paid for my Mercedes,” he said.
The man’s response encapsulates what I’ve been saying all along. While we were sleeping, Genesis somehow became the mid-level luxury brand of choice, and it’s even a decent value. It’s not the cutting-edge of design or of battery technology, but as corporate cars go, Genesis (the luxury label of Hyundai) has done an excellent job adapting to the modern age. If you’re looking to get to Houston, or anywhere, on one charge, you could do a lot worse. In fact, you can’t do much better.
2024 Genesis Electrified GV70 Review: A Corporate Car for the Modern Era
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04.03.2024
For me, the most important factor when it comes to electric cars is: can it get me to Houston on one charge? That is, admittedly, a parochial concern, but I live in Austin, and Houston is the nearest big city where a one-charge drive would be a challenge. San Antonio is only 80 miles away. If your electric car can’t get you to San Antonio, then you’ve got a real problem.
I was able to test this out with a new model, the Genesis Electrified GV70, a few weeks ago. I drove to Houston, where I unsuccessfully played in three poker tournaments, but successfully went to some art galleries with my wife and ate the best breakfast I’ve had all year. But back to the car. Genesis advertised this vehicle as having an electric range of 236 miles. They dropped it off with about 225 in the battery, and Houston is around 180 miles away from my house. I am happy to report that the Genesis Electrified GV70 did, in fact, get me to Houston. It was close, and the warning light came on toward the end of the drive. But I got there.
This may not seem like much........
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