Genesis, Hyundai's luxury vehicle division – has been making inroads across Asia, USA and other worldwide markets for some time and as Andrew Pilkington MD at Genesis UK explained at a recent media drive in Berlin, “Europe is their final frontier”.

Genesis in Europe is direct to consumer, meaning if you buy from them you are buying from Genesis UK. In the last two years they have opened three studios (read dealers) and taken their head count from eight to over 100. Tiny compared to the German brands they really want to be compared to, but still huge kudos for the progress they have made and that their focus in Europe is all electric.

Genesis don’t do hybrids, which is arguably forward thinking, but they also have a target for being a carbon neutral company by 2035 which is a massive undertaking. Combined with their plans for large scale expansion across UK and Germany in 2024 and all models from 2025 being electric, we could well see a lot more of the brand on the road in good ol’ Blighty.

The current line-up consists of the GV60 (SUV crossover), GV70 (Premium Urban SUV) and GV80 (luxury SUV). We spent a week with the GV60 last year (full review here) and a couple of hours with the GV70 in Berlin. We’ve had a good look over the GV80 and whilst it shares a lot of the cutting-edge technology and unrivalled luxury, refinement and versatility, that the brand like to shout about its the 60 and 70 we see selling in the UK.

Again with forward thinking, Genesis are piloting a wireless charging solution which we didn’t get much detail on, but every car comes with V2L, something that leading EV manufacturer Tesla don’t have on any of their cars, and industry-leading charge times with a claimed 10 to 80 per cent in 18 mins and 22 mins (GV60 and GV70 respectively) thanks to their 800v architecture, and now their pièce de resistance, facial recognition or ‘biometrics’ as they like to call it.

We had a demo in Berlin and it worked flawlessly. Given the tech has been available on our smart phones for the last three to four years we can’t understand why none of the other manufacturers have done this. The MY23 cars, once prepped with a simple set of settings by standing looking at the car’s cameras on the b-pillar, enable one to walk up to the car with no phone, no keys, nothing, and it will recognise you and unlock itself.

It’s nothing new in the tech industry, but Genesis having incorporated this into their cars allows you to open your car, get in with all your settings enabled, such as seat and mirror position, radio stations, heating and so on, and drive away. When you get out the car it will lock itself and you can go about your business carrying nothing with you except your face.

There were a few other things that Genesis is keen to boast. The i-pedal which is basically a single pedal driving, smart routing with real time charging data and battery preconditioning, all of which to be fair other manufacturers have been doing for a while.

At the end of the year via an update, Genesis’ cars will allow a state of charge selection on arrival, meaning you can decide how much charge you want to have at the end of your journey when you start, which is something Tesla still haven’t sorted out.