Genesis Debuts Racer and Off-Roader in New York

The Genesis brand has evolved quite a bit in its relatively short history. Starting back in the mid-2000s, Hyundai decided that it needed to expand its reach upmarket from the cheap, basic, mainstream models it had been offering in order to enhance its chances for profitability and retain customers as they got older and more affluent. Thus they created the Genesis sedan and coupe. These began life as part of the main Hyundai lineup along with the top of the line Equus sedan. When the time came for a second generation, the decision was made to spit off Genesis as a stand-alone brand. Now a decade on from that split, Genesis continues its evolution at the 2025 New York Auto Show with a new overlanding concept and the first full-scale iteration of its upcoming race car that will tackle Le Mans in 2026. 

When Genesis first stepped out, its cars were attractive enough, but frankly a bit generic. In a world of premium brands that have their own distinct design DNA, (think BMW’s twin kidney grilles and Hoffmeister kink or the Mercedes 3-pointed star) there wasn’t much that screamed Genesis at first. However, several years ago, the brand began updating all of its models with some elements that would be key to its visual identity. 

Chief among those is the twin-line lighting. Every current Genesis model features a pair of slim,  white, horizontal light lines that curve from the grille area, around the corners and in many cases behind the front wheels. The same look is echoed in red at the rear of the vehicle. Inside, today’s Genesis models feature first rate materials and fit and finish. 

When Genesis became a stand-alone brand, its first three products were all sedans, the G80, a midsize successor to the original Hyundai Genesis sedan, the G90, a followup to the Equuss and the G70, a compact to challenge the BMW 3 series. These were all fairly conventional, mainstream luxury products. Unfortunately, this all came just as sedans were going out of favor relative to SUVs and crossovers. Needless to say the brand responded with the GV60, GV70 and GV80 with a GV90 rumored to join the lineup soon. 

However, before that happens, Genesis has revealed 2 other vehicles that it hopes will expand the brand’s reach into new areas and attract new customers. Both are quite unlike any Genesis produced to date, the X Gran Equator Concept and the full-scale GMR-001 race car. 

X Gran Equator Concept

The X Gran Equator Concept is as we would expect these days, an SUV, but it’s quite unlike most of the SUVs out there. It’s a large 2-row, 4-seater with unique proportions. Apart from the twin-line lighting, there’s not much else about this concept that screams Genesis. The overall form is sort of like a giant block that has had all of the edges rounded off. 

The greenhouse is vaguely reminiscent of an Audi wagon with its forward sloping rear glass. But it sits very far back on the lower body, leaving an exceptionally long hood. It’s the sort of proportion you might get combining a 1930s luxury roadster with a modern SUV thanks to its tall stance and ground clearance. 

Up front, the fascia is vertical and flat with a pair of round insets low in the corners with auxiliary lights, presumably for off-road use. There is no traditional grille on the X Gran Equator concept, just 3 modest slots along the bottom edge. While Genesis isn’t saying anything about a powertrain for the concept, the blank face implies electrification. But that long, long hood seems at odds with that, unless it has a huge frunk. 

The concept rides on 24-inch bead-lock capable wheels with custom all-terrain tires. Again, an odd combination. Anyone serious about off-roading would use much smaller wheels with tires that had a lot more sidewall to help absorb the obstacles on a trail and avoid cuts without doing so much damage to the wheels. 

In the cabin, Genesis has tried to merge digital and analog concepts so the massive display screens that are typical of modern vehicles are completely missing on this concept. Instead, there are four smaller round displays in the center section of the dashboard meant to evoke the control dials on vintage cameras. Similarly, there are three more round, digital gauges directly in front of the driver. 

But this is after all a concept of the sort that we rarely see from automakers anymore. While Genesis seems highly unlikely to build a production model exactly like this, it does seem probable that we’ll see many of these design ideas like the clean front and sides in the next generation of Genesis SUVs and may even see a true off-roader to take on the likes of the vaunted Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen. We’ll be curious to see what Genesis has in store for its next-generation of production models. 

Let’s go racing

Back in the late 2000s when the original Genesis coupe and sedan were launched as part of the Hyundai lineup, the Korean automaker did use the coupe as the basis for some motorsports activities in Formula Drift and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. But as a brand, Genesis has never gone racing until now. That has changed as Genesis will compete in the Hypercar class in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) from 2026 and in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship in 2027. 

That announcement came last December when Genesis showed off a scale model of its GMR-001 Hypercar. The Hypercar class rules allow for two distinct types of racing prototypes to compete. One type is the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) which allows automakers to produce their own chassis and powertrain with either internal combustion engines or hybrid systems. The cars have a nominal minimum weight of 2,160 lbs and can produce up to 700-hp. Currently, Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot and Aston Martin have cars running according to LMH rules. 

The second set of rules is for LMDh cars. These cars look similar, but must use a base chassis produced by one of four race car manufacturers, Oreca, Ligier, Multimatic or Dallara. Automakers can use any engine they want combined with a standard hybrid power unit and battery. Currently, Porsche, Cadillac, Acura, Alpine, Lamborghini and BMW have LMDh cars competing and Ford and McLaren have recently announced their intention to join in 2027. 

The two vehicle types and each of the individual brands are equalized in performance capability by applying a balance of performance system. Rule makers track real time telemetry data from the cars and then apply power and weight adjustments to each brand. Before they compete, the cars are tested and homologated for five years during which only minimal changes are allowed. All of this helps avoid the runaway spending that occurred during the LMP1 era in the 2010s and has helped attract more manufacturers and provided excellent racing. 

The Genesis GMR-001 is an LMDh car with a chassis from Oreca. Here in New York, Genesis is showing the full-scale version of the GMR-001 for the first time in public. One of the goals when the organizers wrote the hypercar rules, was that automakers would incorporate styling cues from their road going products into the race cars. Thus, the BMW has large twin kidney grilles up front, the Cadillac has the vertical head and tail lamps of production models and others have similar design DNA. 

Coming to the hypercar party several years after many of the other teams, Genesis is trying some slightly different details on the body design, most notably in the rear aerodynamics. For both LMH and LMDh, the rules require a lift-to-drag ratio of 4:1 which inherently limits the downforce of these cars. The GMR-001 uses a unique dual plane rear wing design, something that none of the other cars have tried yet and which required approval from regulators to verify its legality.

As expected the GMR-001 features the twin-line lighting that is now de rigueur on every Genesis. The racer’s livery is also based on the new Magma performance variants that Genesis is introducing. The color goes from a bold magma orange at the front to deep red at the back and features Korean lettering subtly incorporated that reads Magma. 

Genesis is developing a new 3.2-liter twin-turbocharged V8 based on its rally winning 1.6-liter four cylinder engine used in the World Rally Championship. The engine is now running on the dynamometer in preparation for installation into the first chassis in the coming weeks. The current schedule is to begin track testing in July following this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The will fine tune everything and verify the durability and reliability that is required for success in endurance racing. It’s racing debut should come at the Qatar 1,826 km race next February with an IMSA debut in January 2027 at the 24 hours of Daytona. 

However, even before the GMR-001 runs for the first time, Genesis Magma Racing is teaming up with IDEC Sport in the 2025 European Le Mans Series to get its race team and drivers ready by competing in the LMP2 class. At the recent Barcelona round that opened the 2025 season, the GMR team won its class first time out. 

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