The 2028 Genesis GV90: Genesis Just Built Its First Real Flagship, and It’s Electric
Genesis unveiled its first full size flagship SUV, the GV90, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on August 19, 2026. The car is going on sale as a 2027 model in Korea and other global markets, and will arrive in the United States as a 2028 model in early 2027. Genesis USA has not yet announced US pricing or US range figures.
The GV90 will be sold in two variants. The standard GV90 uses conventional swing doors and up to a seven seat layout. The GV90 Neolun sits above it with the Neolun Arch Gate, which Genesis says is the world’s first independently opening and closing hidden B pillar coach doors. There is also a GV90 Neolun First Edition at the top of the range, built around a four seat Executive Suite configuration with additional exclusive equipment.
The battery, motors, and platform
The GV90 rides on a new eMP platform Genesis says is exclusive to its flagship model. It carries a 123.5 kilowatt hour high voltage battery, which Genesis says is the largest capacity of any Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicle to date. The battery uses a Wireless Battery Management System and Thermal Runaway Protection that separates each cell to slow heat propagation, plus a cloud based Battery Management System pre diagnostic that watches for anomalies in real time.
Combined motor output is 490 kilowatts and 800 Newton meters of torque, split between a 240 kilowatt front motor and a 250 kilowatt rear motor. In US units that’s roughly 657 horsepower and 590 lb-ft. Genesis quotes an internal development estimate of approximately 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) for the seven seat version, and a 10 to 80 percent DC fast charge time of 22 minutes on a 350 kilowatt charger. That range figure is not an EPA-certified number, so US buyers should not assume the final EPA rating will land in the same place. EPA range for the US market has not been announced.
The GV90 is the first Hyundai Motor Group vehicle to get dual Electronic Limited Slip Differentials, one on each axle. It also gets multi chamber air suspension with electronically controlled dampers, and rear wheel steering that turns the rear wheels up to five degrees. Genesis says that last one shrinks the turning circle to roughly that of a midsize car, which for a vehicle that’s 5,285 mm long (about 208 inches) is a genuinely useful trick.
The Neolun Arch Gate and the swiveling seats
The GV90 Neolun’s headline feature is a set of hidden B pillar coach doors. The front and rear doors open away from each other with no pillar between them, using a new dual motion hinge that first slides the rear door outward and then rotates it open. Genesis engineered the safety structure around the missing pillar by integrating high strength dual steel beams into the doors themselves, plus a passenger cabin frame 1.5 times thicker than a conventional vehicle, reinforced with high strength steel tubes and structural foam. The company says crash performance matches vehicles with a normal B pillar.
The GV90 Neolun also introduces motorized swiveling front seats, a Hyundai Motor Group first. With the vehicle parked, a button on the door trim rotates each front seat a full 180 degrees so the front and rear occupants can face each other. Genesis has not yet confirmed whether this feature will be offered on US-spec vehicles.
The four seat Executive Suite in the GV90 Neolun goes further with a real wood veneer floor incorporating a radiant heating system, inspired by traditional Korean ondol underfloor heating. It adds a Comfort Partition between the rear seats and the trunk, a refrigerator, integrated tables, and a Smart Vision Roof that uses a Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal film to control transparency across six independent zones.
Screens, controls, and the disappearing start button
The GV90 is the first Hyundai Motor Group vehicle with what Genesis calls the New Power Control System, which eliminates the start button entirely. Pull the door handle, and the car powers on. Once the door closes, a Motion Column Shifter rotates from 12 o’clock to 2 o’clock, a Crystal Sphere Controller opens to reveal an integrated controller, and the tweeter covers on the dashboard slide aside. Press the brake pedal and the car is on. Whether this is elegant or just five steps to replace one button is going to be a personal call.
The center display is a pop up OLED unit Genesis calls the Cinematic Display. In normal driving it runs at 23.6 inches. When the car is parked, pressing an extension button raises the screen by 90 mm, growing it to 24.6 inches for a bigger multimedia surface. In place of a traditional instrument cluster, the GV90 uses a 25 inch head up display projected onto the windshield.
The infotainment runs on Pleos Connect, Hyundai Motor Group’s Android Automotive based platform, with an app market for third party apps and a generative AI assistant called Gleo AI for natural language commands. Remote Smart Parking Assist 3 handles automated parking, and a Memory Reversing Assist system remembers a path so the vehicle can back itself out of tight alleys and parking spots.
Sound, light, and the sensory stuff
The audio system is a Bang and Olufsen Premier 3D setup with 25 speakers, a 7.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos configuration, Acoustic Lens Technology tweeters at each end of the dashboard, and headliner and mid range speakers throughout. Genesis includes Virtual Venue software that recreates the acoustics of specific venues, including Boston Symphony Hall and Wembley Stadium, plus a Beosonic feature that lets occupants shape the sound signature.
Cabin isolation is aggressive. Every window on the car, from the windshield to the tailgate, uses acoustic glass over 5 mm thick. Genesis injected high expansion soundproofing filler into the body frame cavities and revised the hood and tailgate seals to cut noise transmission.
Other cabin features include Ambient Glow mood lighting that runs from the dashboard to the doors and interacts with the car (illuminating in sequence on entry, changing brightness during voice recognition), 15 air cell massage seats with pulse vibration, radiant heaters built into the armrests and door trims, and a metal coated heated windshield that generates its own heat to clear frost.
Safety
The GV90 has 12 airbags including what Genesis calls the world’s first Roof Airbag, which deploys across the entire roof glass in a rollover to prevent occupant ejection. Passenger seats get dual depth airbags that deploy in two stages based on posture, plus cushion airbags to keep occupants from submarining under the seatbelt. Curtain airbags extend to the third row. There’s an in cabin monitoring system that reads occupant type and seating position to optimize restraint deployment.
The body uses an aluminum underbody skeleton with extensive aluminum exterior panels. Ultra high strength steel reinforces the sides for battery protection, and a slider structure in front of the battery is designed to push the motor and subframe underneath the vehicle rather than into the pack during a frontal collision.
Design
The GV90 draws its design language from the Korean moon jar, which Genesis has been leaning into for a while now, and it reads as understated rather than fussy for something this size. Wing Face Micro Lens Array headlamps span the front, laser engraved into the bodywork so the lighting element and the panels blend into one another. The Two Line lighting signature runs front and rear. The lower bumper carries a three dimensional G matrix chrome grille.
At 5,285 mm long and 2,030 mm wide, on a 3,245 mm wheelbase, this is a genuinely large SUV. It runs on 22 inch wheels standard, or 24 inch wheels on the Neolun. The GV90 Neolun distinguishes itself with anodized aluminum accents between the first and second row windows. The standard GV90 gets frame flush door glass. There are 16 exterior color options, 13 gloss finishes and three matte, with names like Seychelles Beige, Baena Green, Sonoran Navy, and Vik Black.
What Genesis has not yet said
For US shoppers watching this car, a few important things are still open. Genesis USA has not published US pricing, US EPA range, US charging specifications, or which trims and features will actually make it to the US configurator. The company has said the GV90 will arrive in the US in early 2027 as a 2028 model, and confirmed the swiveling seats will be available here. Beyond that, most of the US specific detail is going to come closer to launch. See the Genesis Newsroom announcement for the full global spec sheet, and the Genesis USA GV90 page as US details land.
Who it’s competing with
The competitive set is pretty clear. The standard GV90 lines up against cars like the Cadillac Vistiq and Lucid Gravity. The Neolun is aimed higher, at the Cadillac Escalade IQ, the electric Range Rover, and traditional gas flagships like the Mercedes Benz GLS, BMW X7, and Audi Q9. The GV90 Neolun First Edition, with its four seat Executive Suite and coach doors, is trying to reach into Cadillac Celestiq and Rolls-Royce Spectre territory.
That’s a big swing for a brand that only launched ten years ago. Genesis reached one million global sales faster than any luxury brand in history, and the GV90 is meant to be the car that says the next ten years will be about the top of the market, not the middle. Whether US buyers will pay flagship money for a Korean brand’s first attempt at this segment is genuinely the question the GV90 has to answer, and we’ll find that out sometime in early 2027.
