Genesis GV60 Sport Plus - long-term review

It’s the seasonal depression that every electric car driver fears, but it feels inevitable; as the ambient temperatures have wobbled ever downwards, so has the GV60's efficiency. It happens to all EVs, but we’ve gone from an easy 3.2 miles-per-kWh to 2.5/2.6, and a range of around 200 all-in, maybe a bit more if you switch off the greedy air con completely and drive like the throttle pedal has a rusty nail poking out of it.

Still, I have to say that the GV60 is absolutely solid in bad weather; stable and confident, it’s got on-point traction management systems that work very well. Interestingly, it feels rear-biased if you poke at the throttle mid-wet-roundabout, but the way the traction control clips and manages the potential wayward movement is impressive. Ditto when you hit standing water on one side of the road - something that happens a lot where I live. It’s like skimming along in a big green boat at the moment.

Weird advantage in snow though; you can slow down very smoothly using the brake re-gen rather than the friction brakes - makes for much more graceful movements.

Other than that, I’ve also got rusty rear discs. Actually quite common on EVs where the drivers use more re-gen than not, and solved quickly by just doing a hefty stop a couple of times to make sure things get engaged. Although I do wince sometimes when the car’s been left outdoors for a couple of days with no driving and the handbrake shoe seems to stick. Cracking that binding effect always sounds pretty grim, even if you know that it’s just little ferrous particles welding themselves to the disc face. But that sounds like the GV60 hasn’t been driving very much - and it really has.

So far, I’ve put over 10k on the car in five months - likely more than 12,000 when it goes back after six - which is pretty much the UK’s annual average. The interior is holding up really well, the general use case attractive. Lots of people who’ve ridden in it seem to like it, and I think it’s just the right side of quirky/interesting to look at - if not a pretty car. It charges well and is very comfortable, but I still get the feeling that Genesis is struggling a bit with getting the image out there. UK audiences aren’t sure what a Genesis is, so it doesn’t necessarily end up on the shortlist, especially with a price premium. A visibility problem that has nothing to do with lines of sight.

Genesis obviously has an idea that it needs to grab a little attention, so there’s been some movement in the excitement department. High-power, sportier ‘Magma’ variants (let me know what you think of the looks), and even a WEC car with the Genesis GMR-001 (Genesis Magma Racing) that we should see at Le Mans in 2026. I know those sorts of things don’t tend to have immediate technical trickle-down to road cars, but it’s Genesis as a manufacturer turning up the heat. Which kinda matches the whole magma idea, hey?