Genesis Electrified G80 review

The Genesis Electrified G80 – it's a name that's as literal as it is promising. Because while the regular G80 has its charm, its engine is gruff and thirsty, falling short of German rivals' standards.

That’s a major problem, because at a bare minimum a luxury car needs to deliver decent levels of refinement and smoothness for the passenger, and low running costs and emissions for the owner. Those are far easier to achieve with an electric car – which brings us back to the Electrified G80. 

Out goes the 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine and in comes a sizeable 82.5kWh battery pack that sends its power to two motors – one mounted on each axle. Combined, you get 365bhp and an official 0-62mph time of just 4.9 seconds. Not too shabby.

To succeed in this elevated sector of the electric car market, the Electrified G80 will need to take on the likes of the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE. It doesn’t even have alternative appeal to itself: if you want a car from outside the German norm there’s the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Polestar 4.

Read on to find out how we rate the Genesis Electrified G80 against the best electric car rivals. Or, if you're interested in the conventional version, see our Genesis G80 review.

The Genesis Electrified G80 comes in just one variant: a fast, dual-motor model version. It has identical 182.5bhp motors on both the front and rear axles, delivering a combined total of 365bhp. Typically, the rear motor drives the car, with the front motor kicking in when extra power is needed or if slip is detected.

It’s an effective system that even in wet conditions allows you to accelerate hard out of a junction with limited wheelspin.

It actually feels quite a bit quicker than its official 0-62mph time of 4.9 seconds suggests and will keep accelerating up to motorway speeds with no real let-up in forward momentum. A Mercedes EQE 350 or BMW i5 eDrive40 wouldn’t see which way it had gone in a traffic light grand prix.

Don’t go thinking the Electrified G80 is an Audi e-tron GT or Porsche Taycan rival though. The accelerator pedal, for example, could do with a better calibration, because in Sport mode it's rather hypersensitive, which makes driving smoothly a challenge. And while the brakes are easy to modulate they’re not particularly powerful.

Likewise, while the front-end has plenty of grip, the steering is a touch vague and body control is rather loose. That forces you to be reserved and smooth with your inputs on the kind of give-and-take country roads that would be a riot in an i5. Even an EQE feels better tied down, with the G80 tending to pogo its way down undulating roads.

The lack of control can also be felt around town, where the G80 sometimes thumps over raised ironwork and potholes. That's also a problem in an entry-level EQE, but at least Mercedes gives you the option of air suspension. Instead, the G80 relies on the same concept as all Genesis car models – it sits on steel coils and adaptive dampers, giving it a narrower operating window. 

Ultimately, the G80 feels at its best on a smooth motorway, where the suspension can breathe with the road and the lack of wind and road noise makes for a relaxed driving experience. It’s a good thing, then, that the official electric range is a useful 323 miles, which is comparable to an i5 M60 xDrive (315 miles) but some way short of an EQE 500 4Matic (385 miles).

We’ve no complaints about the driving position in the Genesis Electrified G80. The driver's seat has plenty of fully electric adjustment, including for lumbar support. What’s more, you’re lined up well with the steering wheel and pedals, making it a generally comfortable affair. 

Unlike an electric SUV the G80 positions you closer to the road yet still offers good visibility to the front and at junctions, making it easy to manoeuvre the car. Rear visibility is less good, but the Electrified G80 compensates with standard blind-spot monitoring and a rear-view camera to help with parking.

One of the highlights of the interior is the presence of physical controls for the climate control system, allowing easy adjustments on the go. That's a significant advantage over the BMW i5 interior, where the temperature is adjusted using the infotainment touchscreen.

The large, 14.5in touchscreen can be operated with a physical rotary controller, like the iDrive dial in the i5. Although it’s easy to accidentally grab when reaching for the gear selector, it remains less distracting than the touchscreen-only interface in the Mercedes EQE.

The touchscreen is responsive and includes DAB radio, Bluetooth, and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring. Additionally, an 18-speaker Lexicon system is standard, providing a powerful audio experience.

The Electrified G80’s interior looks elegant and feels solidly put together, and most buttons and switches have a suitably expensive feel to them. There are a number of colour schemes and real wood choices, along with plenty of aluminium highlights, so the interior can be as light and airy or dark and conservative as you choose.

You’ll find lots of space in the front of the Genesis Electrified G80, with seats that slide back a long way on their runners and plenty of head room.

The same goes for head room in the back, where even six-footers won’t find their heads rubbing against the roof. Leg room for people sitting in the two outer seats is good too, offering at least as much leg room in the rear as you’ll find in the BMW i5.

It’ll be a bit of a squeeze to fit three people across the rear though, and the slightly raised middle seat will mean taller people might need to duck slightly to fit.

As the Electrified G80 is a saloon, the boot opening is quite small, but the same goes for its key rivals. A bigger problem is that the 354-litre boot space is seriously compromised, with the battery pack eating into load space. That's way down on the BMW i5 (490 litres), Mercedes EQE (430 litres) and Polestar 4 (526 litres). 

If you go for the Executive Pack, you can fold down the rear seatbacks electrically, and they split in a handy 40/20/40 arrangement. A powered tailgate comes as standard.

The Genesis Electrified G80 is priced in line with its main electric car rivals, the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE. However, all electric cars attract fantastic benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax breaks right now so it will set you back a tiny amount as a company car.

Genesis gives you a good amount of equipment as standard. We’re talking 19in alloy wheels, automatic main-beam headlights, a 17-speaker Lexicon sound system and dual 9.2in screens for rear-seat passengers.

You can add a number of attractive option packs. The Convenience Pack is the one we’d choose first, with a heated steering wheel, electric tailgate and three-zone climate control. The reasonably priced vehicle-to-load option is also worth considering – it lets you use the Electrified G80’s batteries to power other things. You can get solar panels on the roof too.

​​The amount of standard safety kit is also impressive and is one of the reasons the G80 scored five stars out of five in its Euro NCAP safety test.

Every Genesis G80 comes with automatic emergency braking (AEB), rear cross-traffic alert and lane-keeping assist. You can also opt for the Innovation pack, which introduces a camera-based blind-spot view monitor, a system that will stop you from reversing into unseen traffic and a system that lets you remotely park the car by pressing a button on the key fob.   

The Electrified G80 has a sizeable 82.1kWh battery pack that can top up at a maximum charging speed of up to 230kW. That’s a quicker charging rate than a BMW i5 (205kW), Mercedes EQE (170kW), Polestar 4 (200kW) and VW ID 7 (200kW), but slower than a Tesla Model 3 Long Range (250kW) or Porsche Taycan (270kW). In theory, its charging rate allows for a 10-80% charge in just over 20 minutes at a rapid public charger.

We don't have any reliability data for Genesis but every car is backed up by a five-year unlimited mileage warranty. What's more, parent company Hyundai did very well in the 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey which bodes well for its premium car division.

For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter here