Genesis GV60 AWD Performance review, quirky tech, speed and luxury

Published

3 years ago

November 23, 2022

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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.

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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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Environment

The UK wants to unlock a ‘golden age of nuclear’ but faces key challenges in reviving historic lead

Published

5 hours ago

December 6, 2025

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The UK wants to unlock a 'golden age of nuclear' but faces key challenges in reviving historic lead

The Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF), in Sizewell, UK, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The U.K. was the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy, but now generates just a fraction of its power from it — big investments are underway to change that.

The country once had more nuclear power stations than the U.S., USSR and France — combined. It was a global producer until 1970 but hasn’t completed a new reactor since Sizewell B in 1995.

Today, the country takes the crown not for being a leader in atomic energy, but for being the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects.

Nuclear energy accounted for just 14% of the U.K.’s power supply in 2023, according to the most recent data from the International Energy Agency, trailing its European peers and well behind frontrunner France at 65%.

There is ambition to change that and have a quarter of the U.K.’s power come from nuclear by 2050. Nuclear is considered an attractive bet gas it’s a low-carbon, constant energy source that can act as a baseload to complement intermittent sources like renewables.

“There’s a very clear momentum that has been observed,” Doreen Abeysundra, founder of consultancy Fresco Cleantech, told CNBC. It’s in part due to geopolitical tensions, which pushed energy security and independence onto public agendas.

However, the U.K.’s Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce called for urgent reforms after identifying “systemic failures” in the country’s nuclear framework. It found that fragmented regulation, flawed legislation and weak incentives led the U.K. to fall behind as a nuclear powerhouse. The government committed to implementing the taskforce’s guidance and is expected to present a plan to do so within three months.

Going big – or small

The U.K. is spreading its bets across tried-and-tested large nuclear projects and smaller, next-generation reactors known as small module reactors (SMRs).

British company Rolls-Royce has been selected as the country’s preferred partner for SMRs, which are effectively containerized nuclear reactors designed to be manufactured in a factory. Many include passive cooling techniques, which supporters argue makes them safer and cheaper.

Nuclear has long come under fire by environmentalists due to radioactive waste and disasters like Chernobyl. Indeed, the U.K.’s first commercial plant Windscale became its worst nuclear accident in history when it melted down in 1957.

On October 10, 1957, Windscale became the site of the worst nuclear accident in British history, and the worst in the world until Three Mile Island 22 years later. A facility had been built there to produce plutonium, but when the US successfully designed a nuclear bomb that used tritium, the facility was used to produce it for the UK. However, this required running the reactor at a higher temperature than its design could sustain, and it eventually caught fire. Operators at first worried that e

Photo: George Freston | Hulton Archive | Getty Images

Most SMRs use light water reactor technology – think of the planned large-scale nuclear plant Sizewell C, just “shrunk down,” said Abeysundra – which is tried and tested.

Other designs, known as “advanced” reactors, are more experimental. For example, those that change the cooling solution or solvent, which is typically used in the process of separating and purifying nuclear materials.

The U.K.’s first SMR will be at Wylfa, in Wales, though no timeline has been given for its completion. The site will house three SMRs and grow over time.

In September, the country signed a deal with the U.S. to enable stronger commercial ties on nuclear power and streamline licensing for firms that want to build on the opposite side of the Atlantic.

However, “the first thing is, there is not, at the moment, a single SMR actively producing electricity under four revenues. They will all come at best in the 30s,” Ludovico Cappelli, portfolio manager of Listed Infrastructure at Van Lanschot Kempen, told CNBC.

While SMRs are a “game changer” thanks to their ability to power individual factories or small towns, their days of commercial operation are too far away, he said. From an investment standpoint, “that is still a bit scary,” he added.

To secure the large baseloads needed to offset the intermittency of renewables, “we’re still looking at big power stations,” added Paul Jackson, Invesco’s EMEA global market strategist.

Nuclear share of total electricity (2023)

IEA

SMRs “probably” do have a role — “they can clearly be more nimble” — but it will take time to roll them out, Jackson said, casting doubt on the U.K.’s ability to be a leader in nuclear, as France and China are already miles ahead.

The U.K. government body Great British Energy-Nuclear is set to identify sites for an additional large-scale plant, having already acquired one in Gloucestershire, in the west of England, as well as the site in Wales.

“We are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered to unlock a golden age of nuclear, securing thousands of good, skilled jobs and billions in investment,” a spokesperson for the U.K. government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told CNBC.

“Sizewell C will deliver clean electricity for the equivalent of six million of today’s households for at least six decades, and the UK’s first small modular reactors at Wylfa will power the equivalent of three million homes, bringing energy security,” they added.

Innovation in funding

The U.K. has a strong legacy to build on. It pioneered fresh funding mechanisms to make large-scale nuclear projects investible so that they are less reliant on direct government funding, such as a Contract for Differences, which was used for Hinkley Point C.

The mechanism guarantees a fixed price for the electricity generated over a long period of time in order to de-risk investments in an industry that’s known for running over time and budget. Hinkley Point C was initially expected to cost £18 billion (over $24 billion) but the bill has slowly crept up.

“That fixes one part of the equation, the price risk,” Cappelli said of nuclear investments, but the second risk is construction delays.

The Regulated Asset Base (RAB), first used for nuclear at Sizewell C, attempts to reconcile this. Investors get paid from the day they cut a check for a nuclear project, rather than the day it starts operating. Sizewell C is expected to cost £38 billion to build.

Private market investors are increasingly interested in next-generation nuclear as a way to offset soaring energy demands from AI, resulting in a host of young companies trying to build out facilities. Perhaps the most famous is Oklo, a U.S. firm that was taken public by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Rendering of a proposed Oklo commercial advanced fission power plant in the U.S.

Courtesy: Oklo Inc.

The U.K.’s advanced modular reactor hopeful Newcleo, which uses lead for cooling, moved its headquarters from London to Paris in 2024 — a strategic move to deepen its European footprint. At the time, it told World Nuclear News that it still plans to have a commercial reactor up and running in the U.K. by 2033, but the firm has since scaled back its British efforts.

Meanwhile, Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion call the U.K. home. They both focus on nuclear fusion, the process of generating power by combining atoms, though this technology is yet to get out of the lab. All of today’s nuclear power comes from fission, where atoms are spit. The U.K. announced £2.5 billion for a world-first fusion prototype in June.

The next generation of engineers

The U.K. faces challenges in access to relevant talent, which is crucial for scaling projects effectively. The country is heralded for its world-class universities and technical know-how, “but that is very much book knowledge,” said Van Lanschot Kempen’s Cappelli.

“What we need is real on-the-ground expertise, and that we are probably lacking for the simple reason that we haven’t been doing it for a very long time,” he said.

For Abeysundra, there’s one area where the U.K. stands out: its mindset. “There is so much knowledge, innovation, and that can-do attitude, which I don’t see as much in other nations,” she said, pointing to the U.K.’s trailblazing role in the Industrial Revolution and establishment of offshore wind energy.

X-Energy’s Kam Ghaffarian on Nuclear Power, AI, and the Space Tech Race

The U.K. government positioned nuclear energy as a key element of the future clean energy workforce in its Clean Energy Jobs Plan released in October, while its national roadmap for nuclear skills, set out in 2024, focuses on apprenticeships, PhDs and upskilling mid-career workers. Industry-led initiatives such as the Energy Skills Passport also support the likes of oil and gas workers to gain green skills.

Securing the supply chain

Perhaps the toughest issue, however, is the supply chain.

Uranium, the fuel used to make a nuclear reaction, is dominated by just four countries, including Russia. Global demand for uranium could rise by nearly a third by 2030 and more than double by 2040, according to the World Nuclear Association, adding further reliance on a select few countries and pressure on developers.

The U.K. government has allocated funding to build up the supply chain and has committed to preventing the import of nuclear fuel from Russia by 2028. Fuel for Sizewell C will come from European or “Western suppliers,” Cappelli noted.

However, for him, it poses the question: How secure is nuclear energy really? “We have to build nuclear power plants, but we need to build the value chain,” Cappelli added.

Workers, expertise and funding are required for nuclear energy, but the supply chain is also key, he said. Otherwise, there will be “the same issues that we had with gas,” a nod to the U.K.’s reliance on just one supplier. Instead of gas, it will be with uranium.

Environment

Tesla announces 2025 holiday update with a few cool features

Published

12 hours ago

December 6, 2025

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Tesla announces 2025 holiday update with a few cool features

Tesla has officially announced its 2025 Holiday Update, and this year, the automaker is not using the usually bigger update for any groundbreaking stuff, but there are a few interesting new smaller features.

You will find the release notes in this article.

It’s that time of year again. Every December, Tesla bundles a bunch of features it has been working on into a “Holiday Update” to give owners something to play with over the break.

While previous years have focused on adding major apps like Apple Podcasts or Steam integration, the holiday updates have become gradually weaker over the last few years, and they now concentrate mainly on playful features with smaller tweaks and add-ons.

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Tesla announced the rollout in a post on X today:

Environment

Kia is still offering over $10,000 off its entire EV lineup

Published

15 hours ago

December 5, 2025

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Kia is still offering over ,000 off its entire EV lineup

Kia is extending one of its biggest promotions yet, knocking over $10,000 off every EV in its lineup.

Kia knocks $10,000 off EV models

Who said electric vehicles would get more expensive after the $7,500 federal tax credit ended? Kia must not have gotten the memo.

Last month, Kia launched a new promotion, offering a $10,000 customer cash discount for all EVs, including the EV6, EV9, and Niro EV. The discount knocks nearly 25% off MSRP on Kia’s cheapest model, the Niro EV. On the entry-level EV6, it’s 23% off MSRP, while $10,000 off the EV9 is about an 18% discount.

The discounts ended on December 1, but Kia has extended them for at least another month. During its Season of New Tradition sales event, Kia is now offering even more savings.

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The 2025 Kia EV6 and Niro EV are now eligible for up to $11,000 in customer cash, including a $10,000 cash back offer and a $1,000 retail bonus cash discount.

If you’re looking for something a little bigger, the 2026 EV9, Kia’s three-row electric SUV, is available with up to $10,500 in bonus cash.

If you choose to finance, Kia is offering 0% APR for up to 72 months, plus $3,500 APR Bonus Cash on the EV6 and Niro EV. The larger EV9 is available with 0% APR for up to 60 months with a $3,000 APR Bonus Cash offer.

Kia-another-EV-US — The 2026 Kia EV9 (Source: Kia)

The 2025 Kia Niro EV and EV6 are available to lease, starting at $209 and $309 per month for 24 months. The 2026 EV9 is listed with monthly leases starting at $419.

The new sales event comes after Hyundai extended its EV promotions, keeping the IONIQ 5 as one of the most affordable EV leases in the US, starting at just $189 per month.

Kia’s Seasons of New Traditions sales event runs until January 2, 2026. Some deals may vary by region. You can see offers near you by using the links at the bottom.

Interested in test-driving one for yourself? We can help see what’s available in your area. Check out our links below to find Kia and Hyundai EVs near you.