Genesis GV60 AWD Performance review, quirky tech, speed and luxury
Genesis finally delivered the much sought after GV60 to our home for a week test drive, and immediately I had questions: Wy all of this amazing speed, interesting tech and luxury, but no wireless CarPlay?
There’s a ton to love about the GV60 Performance and probably the best thing is that performance which pushes the AWD from 0-60 in a AWD chirping just over three seconds.
The GV60 also drives like a dream with a soft suspension and almost no road noise. The low center of gravity and big wheels make taking harrowing turns almost fun; this is a drivers car camouflaged as a crossover.
But, as we’ll see in a theme here, there’s a caveat to this performance. The highest level of acceleration must be activated from the “Boost” button on the steering wheel. When you do this the car accelerates for about 10 seconds, the screen turns red, and you get a hyperdrive graphic.
That feels cool, like a Knight Rider trick to show your friends (and I did), but in reality when you really need the boost, like on an on-ramp or during passing, you don’t want to be reaching all over the steering wheel to find a button. It would be much simpler to just have that power delivered through the accelerator. I understand that the “Boost” button is only good for a few boosts within a given time period, and that’s fine – just give me all it can safely deliver through the accelerator without the parlor tricks.
Like I said, that’s a theme here – lots of neat tricks that don’t necessarily enhance the driving experience. Probably the best example of this is the glass orb that turns into the gear shifter. It is quite cool and a conversation piece… for a few days… then it becomes a plain old delay. As in it takes about five seconds from starting the car for it to complete its transition. That’s not a lot of time, but when you want to get in and go, that’s an annoying delay. I wish Genesis had provided a “gear shifter only” mode so I can have those few seconds back.
While that’s happening, I’ve learned to do other things. One neat trick is that the GV60 has a fingerprint reader (sadly not on the steering wheel but in the back of the center console). You can start the car with only your finger, no fob or smartphone app required. But it is also where driver profiles are stored, so you’ll want to finger login while the orb is changing into a gear shifter.
Another thing you are required to do before driving is plug in your phone because there is no wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. Yes, this car that is packed with every available gadget and gizmo doesn’t have the one thing that every car in 2020 should have: wireless CarPlay.
I realize most people want to charge their phone on long drives, and I’m one of these people. But for short drives, I’d rather leave my phone in my pocket or just drop it on the wireless charger (which the GV60 has – for some reason). I hate to say it, but this is going to be a dealbreaker for some.
One thing that’s not a gimmick is the heads-up display which is bright and full-featured and includes your speed, the speed limit, and road variables. I find that a good heads-up display such as this one makes driving a lot safer and easier.
The traffic aware cruise control isn’t anything to write home about. It freaks out when entering a highway without turn signals, for instance. I know you are supposed to use your turn signal to do this, but it is seldom done in real life because it is the only option. I guess the upside is that it teaches the driver to use a turn signal during merging, lest they get basted with alarms.
Forward collision-avoidance assist is also mediocre or perhaps overly sensitive with a few false positives in my experience. I know this is a hard problem to solve, but Genesis didn’t solve it.
The GV60 is a great looking car
I hate to be superficial, but I love the look of the GV60, and I think it is the best looking out of a handsome class of E-GMP platform (Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, 6) vehicles. It looks like something that slices through the wind and at the same time carries the whole family – including the dog. Size-wise, it feels like a good mid-sized CUV crossover with plenty of room in the back. Compared to Tesla Model Y/3 and Chevy Bolt:
Frovebox?
The frunk, just like on other E_GMP vehicles, is a glorified glovebox but still a good place to stuff a small charger cord or other smaller things you want to hide and mostly forget about. It looks like an afterthought, and I’d expect future models to either have more space or no frunk at all, depending which way customers prefer to go.
I’ve noticed that if a frunk is easy to open and roomy, it gets used a lot. This one is neither, so Genesis market research may come back saying, “No one is using it, scrap it!”
Rear wiper? Not needed!
Another weird omission is lack of rear wiper. I’m assuming the idea, like on other rear wiper-less vehicles, is that the wind pushing over the window removes most water. I didn’t have an issue seeing out the back in a slight drizzle, but driving slow in heavier rain wouldn’t be great, I imagine. Also I should note that view-ability out the back window is already very limited. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, but others might not agree.
The GV60 features 24 cubic feet of storage with the rear seat in place and a total of 54.7 cubic feet of cargo space when they’re folded. It has a rear retracting cover that will likely live in the corner of your garage after being removed on the first day of driving.
The back storage area is moderately roomy and well lit – plenty of room for groceries or even a small tuba. There’s not much storage underneath the floor, however. I think there would be plenty of room back there for a medium-sized dog, and I’d feel OK traveling with our 50 pound Husky, for instance.
Charging speed is amazing, but range isn’t
We already know that E-GMP platform 77.4-kWh battery pack vehicles charge at some of the fastest rates we’ve seen on a kilowatt basis with only GMC’s 200+kWh Hummer seeing higher speeds. I didn’t get to check out the high speed charging speed first hand because the local chargers top out at 150kW, but many others have seen 270+kW, so I’ll trust their experience. The GV60 is able to go from 10% to 80% of charge or 165 miles in just 18 minutes.
The problem here is that with the high performance 430 horsepower motors and huge wheels, the GV60 Performance only sees about a 235 mile range, and my testing confirmed this. The 314 horsepower “advanced AWD” version sees a slightly better 248 mile range.
That means that while charging stops will be quick, they will be more often on longer trips, especially compared to a 300+ mile range of its EV6 or Ioniq 5 siblings. Again this isn’t a dealbreaker, and 235 miles is plenty for the occasional road trip, but something to add to the buyer’s math.
Electrek’s Take
Reading over this review, it feels like I had a lot of complaints, but really I enjoyed the GV60 quite a bit. It is about as fast as you’d ever want a CUV to go at just over three seconds 0-60. It handles the street incredibly well with almost no wind noise and great balance. It charges quickly and has a lot of admirable tech like the heads-up display, and it is packaged with a luxury interior. It also looks dope.
Yes, I had quibbles, in order of importance: the lack of wireless CarPlay, 235 miles of range, rear visibility, and quirky gadgetry. But for most people, none of those are dealbreakers and, if you can find (an extremely limited supplies) one, I think most EV buyers will love this car.
Priced at $59,290-$68,290 find one at a local dealer here.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will remove “safety monitors” from the passenger seats of Tesla’s Robotaxi vehicles in “about three weeks,” which would mean we’d see completely driverless Teslas in the Austin area potentially by the end of the year – if that timeline sticks.
Tesla has been working on a system that would allow vehicles to drive themselves, which has been in “beta” release for over a decade now. It calls this system “Full Self-Driving,” despite the fact that the system does not currently drive itself.
That has not stopped Musk from consistently promising more and more of the system, despite its stagnating capabilities. Over the course of the last decade, Musk has consistently promised driverless vehicles within the coming year, with deadlines consistently passing by without achieving that goal.
One of those promises has been the creation of a driverless taxi network, which Tesla used to call “Tesla Network” and is now calling “Robotaxi.” The idea originally came with the promise that owners could use their cars to make money by running them as taxis, but that hasn’t panned out.
Tesla did roll out its own version of a taxi network, though, in Austin, in June of this year. While it’s done a few cool things, the cars each have a “safety monitor” in the passenger seat who can take control at any time, which means the cars aren’t truly “driverless” since there is an operator, they’ve just been moved to the passenger seat.
In the time since Robotaxi’s rollout, it’s made quite a few mistakes and had a high crash rate. But Tesla also delivered one fully unoccupied vehicle from the factory to a local buyer, which was a cool (and, as yet, still unique) stunt.
Throughout the year, Musk has claimed loudly that the system would improve rapidly, stating that by the end of the year Robotaxis would be available to half of the US population (they are not) and that Tesla’s fleet would grow by more than 10x by the end of the year (it has not).
But now we have another bold prediction from Musk, stating that the safety monitors will be out of a job by the end of the year.
During a videoconference at a hackathon event for xAI, one of Musk’s other companies (which he is trying to get Tesla shareholders to bail out), Musk was asked a question about the barriers to unsupervised full self-driving. Musk answered:
Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. There will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them, not even anyone in the passenger seat, in about three weeks. I think it’s pretty much a solved problem, we’re just going through validation right now.
The “three weeks” timeline is familiar to longtime Tesla followers. Over the years, Musk has often promised fixes or software updates in “two weeks,” and they often take longer than that.
Three weeks is a lot closer than the “next year” promise that we’ve heard so many times for full autonomy, but given its proximity to the oft-inaccurate two-week timeline, we’re not sure these vehicles will actually be ready in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Nevertheless, it’s a closer timeline than Musk has usually given, so there may be truly driverless Teslas operating sometime soon™.
Also, reading the statement more closely, it sounds like they won’t necessarily remove safety operators from every vehicle, but some vehicles. This could be similar to the singular driverless vehicle delivery that Tesla did – a PR stunt, rather than a full rollout. We’ll have to wait and see.
Tesla’s main competitor in the robotaxi space is Waymo, which has been operating truly driverless vehicles for several years now. The company has also been operating autonomous, driverless vehicles in Austin since March of this year.
Musk went on to talk about future improvements to Tesla’s software and hardware in his answer.
The company is currently on hardware previously deemed HW4, though to cash in on the AI stock market bubble, it now refers to that system as AI4. He said that AI5 will be 10-40 times better than HW4 and go into volume production in 2027, with AI6 coming soon after.
Musk’s mention of future hardware improvements neglects one important aspect of these improvements, which is that for every hardware improvement Tesla puts into its fleet, the more vehicles it will have to upgrade later.
Tesla long promised that its vehicles had all the hardware for self-driving, which means it’s going to have to upgrade a lot of cars – and there are court cases around the world seeking to force the company to do so. Together, these lawsuits and other potential challenges could mean billions of dollars in liabilities for the company.
Musk then closed his statements by claiming that “our” goal is to “to understand the meaning of life and… propagate consciousness out to the stars,” which is not Tesla’s goal. Tesla’s actual goal is to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. He may have been referring to xAI’s goal, but given the answer was about Tesla, perhaps he was confused (or perhaps he doesn’t care about Tesla anymore, and isn’t a good CEO for the company as a result…)
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VW’s retro-tastic minivan hasn’t been the sales success the company might have wanted, and a lot of that has to do with the van’s sky high price tag. Now, VW is asking: will a $10,000 discount be enough to create some buzz for the ID.Buzz?
Volkswagen is offering $7,500 in Retail Customer Bonus cash this month – up from the $2,500 the company offered its Black Friday customers – that, along with an additional $2,500 unadvertised dealer cash incentive that CarsDirect is reporting absolutely, definitely exists, adds up to a stout $10,000 total discount on the all-electric VW ID.Buzz … and that’s before you start haggling with your dealer over the MSRP.
It’s a lot
As much as I like the the Volkswagen ID.Buzz, its starting MSRP around $61,545 (incl. destination) puts it at nearly twice what you’d probably expect a minivan to cost if the last time you shopped for one was at a Dodge store. Still, that hefty price tag is some $20,000 higher than the baseline Toyota Sienna hybrid or Honda Odyssey.
That 50% higher price is a lot to swallow even if you do buy into the nostalgia. Still, the ID.Buzz is capable enough, and with ~230 miles of range and 282 hp on offer from its battery/electric motor combo – plus Supercharger access – it’s at least able to keep up with the minivan competition.
So, while that $10,000 discount isn’t going to turn the ID.Buzz into the second coming of the affordable, family-hauling Caravan, it does bring VW’s electric people-mover a little closer to earth. In fact, with a $50K price tag, it’s right in line with the average transaction price of a new vehicles. So, if nothing else, that reduced price could finally gives electric minivan buyers something to buzz about (I tried so hard to work that in, you guys).
If you’ve been shopping for a family-hauler and dig the retro vibe over something like the (excellent) Kia EV9, click through the link below and set up a test drive at your local VW dealer.
SOURCE: CarsDirect; images via VW.
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Peterbilt has jumped into the MD truck ring with the launch three new medium-duty electric trucks that deliver zero-emissions power, ultra-fast 350 kW charging, and proven, versatile platforms for delivery, utility service, and vocational upfitting.
The new Peterbilt 536EV, 537EV, and 548EV medium-duty trucks slot into the same versatile medium-duty segments the company’s fleets already know, but swap diesel power for latest PACCAR ePowertrain, with up to 605 hp and 1,850 lb-ft of torque available at 0 rpm. That big motor draws power from a variety of LFP battery packs and be fitted with ePTO options rated for either 25 kW (two-battery option) or 150 kW (three-battery option), making them suitable for that can be sized for daily delivery routes, urban utility work, and municipal fleets looking to cut both emissions and maintenance costs.
What’s more, the new Peterbilt’s flexible architecture allows for integration with existing PACCAR suspension bits to make 4×2 and 6×4 configurations, and any wheelbase of 163 inches or longer, and up to 82,000 lbs. gross combined weight ratings possible.
“[The new trucks are] optimized for the demands of the medium duty segment, the next generation of Peterbilt electric vehicles deliver excellent efficiency, rapid charging and versatile configurations elevating customer productivity across a wide range of applications,” said Erik Johnson, Peterbilt assistant general manager, Sales & Marketing.
In addition to all those goodies, the PACCAR EV tech continues to be top-notch, with the previously-mentioned 350 kW charging, regenerative braking, and industry-leading ergonomics.
Peterbilt’s new MDEVs ship with a blue accented crown and grille for a distinctive exterior look, as well as EV-exclusive panels on the side of the hood. The interior design features laser-etched trim panels on the EV-exclusive Magneto Gray interior, just in case the driver in the quiet, smooth, and stink-free cabin forgets they’re in an electric truck.
Electrek’s Take
Ignore the headlines. The death of the commercial EV market simply hasn’t happened, and won’t happen any time soon.
If you believe the engineers and analysts at MAN Trucks and Orange EV (and, you should), an EV like this can pay for itself in reduced fuel and maintenance costs even without incentives, then you should already know what I’m about to say: the future of trucking is 100% electric.
SOURCE | IMAGES: PACCAR.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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