Genesis Electrified GV70 (2025 - ) review

Like all electric cars, ultra-low running costs for the Electrified GV70 are the key financial benefit over its petrol competitors. If you are one of the 60 per cent of British residents with off-street parking, you can take advantage of insanely cheap night-time charging on an off-peak tariff with a home charger, meaning 200 miles’ of charge will cost you under a fiver. If you can get an Electrified GV70 through a company-car scheme, you will also gain from very low tax on the benefit, which is just two per cent at the time of writing. Genesis is essentially the luxury arm of Hyundai, so it doesn’t sell the cheapest electric SUVs on the market, but you do get a genuine sense of high-quality materials and design inside that is lacking in many more familiar premium competitors. Indeed, when the badges were hidden at launch, some members of the public mistook the Genesis models for Bentleys, so in that context the products feel like value for money. Residuals should also be fairly strong, leading to relatively decent PCP deals.

Genesis “personal assistants” are on hand to help you with any issues that crop up, and will still come to your house with a courtesy car and take yours away when servicing is required, though sadly the offer of test drives from home have disappeared. But, given Hyundai’s impeccable reliability track record and good five-year warranty, you shouldn’t expect many problems, especially in an electric car which has fewer moving parts and a separate eight-year battery warranty.

That price tag might look hefty, but you get a lot of features, including active cruise control that does the stopping and starting for you as well as maintaining a set speed, an automatic braking system that intervenes for cyclists, pedestrians and animals on the road as well as vehicles, and an indicator system that shows you a camera image of what’s down the side of your car before you turn. Driving modes adjust the power and brakes for extra grip on snow, sand or mud, and there are all the parking sensors and cameras you’d expect of a car at this level.

Comfort is where Genesis excels as a brand. The cars feel wide and light inside, with the seats cushioned from road vibrations, and the windows keeping out the wind noise. There is very little disturbance for passengers, either round town or on the motorway. We strongly recommend the lighter materials, which really create a sense of interior luxury. The downsides remain the boot, which doesn’t feel deep enough for a car this size (although full marks for being able to lower the rear seats from the boot), and the fact that massage and lumbar adjustment for the driver are only available on the top Luxury trim, in the Comfort Seat pack. But there’s also a massive sigh of relief that Genesis has kept physical buttons and switches for important features like temperature control, instead of hiding them all on a stupid touch-screen.

The 2025 version of the GV70 gets a bigger, more glamorous touch-screen stretching from the centre of the car and wrapping around the driver display, too, forming a much more pleasing glass interface. This also means that your smartphone’s map will display in the driver’s instrument display, as well as on the main infotainment screen, which is an underrated feature. It’s a shame you’ve got to splash out on Dynamic (the middle) trim to get the head-up display, however, but if you’re in for a penny, then may we suggest the whole pound, by moving up to Luxury trim so you get the Bang and Olufsen sound system? It’s wonderful. We also like the standard soundscape that Genesis, and many Hyundais, offer, whereby you can listen to the sound of a rain on a window, or birds in a forest, or any other number of wellbeing sounds, while your stress levels are going through the roof in a traffic jam. It sort of works.

Bring out the party poppers… the updated Electrified GV70 extends the maximum range from 283 miles to 298 miles. Whoop. Or not. Note that you’ll never see either of those two figures unless you leave the dog at home and go on a keto diet, but you should now get 250 miles at least on a charge, which isn’t bad for a family SUV, although, given the average range of a new electric car on Autotrader is 276 miles, anything below 300 miles at that price is starting to look poor. Given that, you’ll probably never touch the “boost” button, which unleashes a hilarious 490 horsepower. Maybe have a blast once a year, on your birthday. But there’s four-wheel drive, which some owners will want, and a very easy, unobtrusive, relaxing drive on offer for those looking to lead a calmer life.