Editor’s letter: Genesis can become a success thanks to 2am calls

The nascent Genesis brand has been through rather a lot in its short time in the UK.

Launched in the middle of the Covid pandemic as a stand-alone entity that planned to offer only direct sales online, Hyundai Motor Group’s premium arm was subsequently rolled into the UK mothership at the back end of last year under the leadership of Ashley Andrew and started to partner with traditional retailers for sales at a similar time. 

Genesis’s sales have fallen backwards in 2024 as it adjusts to those changes, which operationally effectively amount to a relaunch, although not in the eyes of the consumer because the cars have remained the same. So far in 2024, it has registered 556 cars in the UK, a 31% drop year on year and a similar number to DS.

Even so, Genesis remains one of the more interesting entrants to the UK car market because of where it has come from. Sired out of the Hyundai Motor Group, probably the most remarkable growth story in the global car industry in the past two decades, the creation of Genesis and desire to establish it as a premium player is surely the toughest challenge yet taken on by the Korean giant. 

Given the jobs done with both Hyundai and Kia, Genesis’s future success cannot be dismissed, however slow a start it has made in the UK and mainland Europe. Indeed, any notion that Genesis is another Infiniti – Nissan’s premium arm that didn’t last long in Europe, because it always felt like an ego play from then-boss Carlos Ghosn – is instantly dismissed by officials. 

They point out that failure or wavering are simply not in Korean culture and Genesis will be established as a credible premium player as a result. Yet the yardstick of how that success is measured within Hyundai is very different from that of the likes of BMW and Audi, which have effectively become volume players. 

In the UK, Genesis’s plan remains to have a network of around 12-15 dealers in order to keep the personal service of the brand. Europe boss Lawrence Hamilton told me that personal service remains the company’s main point of difference and a network of this size allows that to be achieved.

The main part of that service is through the Genesis Personal Assistant programme, a dedicated point of contact for each owner to channel any queries or issues with their car through. It was fascinating to speak to one such personal assistant recently, who said that customers are given their mobile number and they are on hand to help with whatever is needed with the car. 

While there have been 2am phone calls from buyers with flat batteries, much of it is simply routine service bookings and general enquiries, and these can now more easily be facilitated through Genesis’s retail partners. A single point of contact is something buyers have valued. 

Genesis and Hyundai might be being kept as completely separate entities from a consumer perspective, but word has spread: our friendly personal assistant reported that news of the launch of Genesis had filtered through to the existing Hyundai customer base and some had arrived at Hyundai dealers hoping to see Genesis models.

So the word is out there, even if not quite fully in the way the company envisioned. A physical retail presence is something Genesis is keen to establish with its retail partners, yet these will be stand-alone sites that are not physically linked to any Hyundai dealerships. 

The tie-up with Hyundai has been most significant so far to the bottom line in getting Genesis in front of fleet buyers and the company is experiencing success here in building orders and brand awareness. Hyundai opens doors in this market and Genesis plans to walk through them. The firm is already reporting strong growth in the fleet sector. 

In Europe, Genesis remains in the same three markets as this time last year – the UK, Germany and Switzerland – and the UK now mirrors the other pair in being run out of Hyundai. The intention is still to expand beyond that, but the plans are not aggressive or particularly urgent because the brand wants to get the markets it has already launched in right before before going elsewhere.

Indeed, this time last year, there was talk of launches in France, Italy and Spain, yet instead the UK business was overhauled to give it a structure more in line with that of Germany and Switzerland. 

We’re not short of new brands in the UK, but Genesis hopes to ride the crest of the wave of ‘newness’ and interest in new brands largely being spearheaded by Chinese firms. It can do so without any question marks or controversy about its origins – origins whose record of success with Hyundai and Kia make the Genesis story one of the industry’s more intriguing ones to follow.