Genesis Is Working On A Flagship Off-Roader
Korean luxury brand Genesis is looking to spread out into other market niches, including cooking up an off-roader. We already saw a preview of what such a vehicle might be like with the X Gran Equator revealed earlier this year. Now it’s coming out that Genesis thinks it will challenge the mighty Mercedes G-Wagon.
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You can stop laughing now, although it is funny. The Koreans have been rather ambitious, we’ll give them that, but it’s doubtful they can produce something that will take on the mightiest of the luxury off-roaders.
We say that in part because Genesis and its parent company Hyundai tend to stay away from body-on-frame, hardcore off-road trucks. While we’d love to be proven wrong on this, the Genesis X Gran Equator gave off strong Starbucks Cruiser vibes, signaling the likely direction the automaker will go.
Image via Genesis
While we get that a good chunk, likely a vast majority of G-Wagons never touch dirt, we still respect Mercedes for not dialing back their off-road chops. Sure, the auto journalists who live in giant concrete jungles and rarely see real mountains might mock that, but for those of us who get into the great outdoors regularly, vehicles like that are incredible.
Not only will the future Genesis luxury off-roader be measured against the G-Wagon, it will be competing against the rather capable and storied Lexus GX and LX of Land Cruiser heritage, the Land Rover Defender, and the off-roader BMW is whipping up.
In other words, the competition is stiff.
While a lot of people are wondering if the Genesis will be an EV, hybrid, or just a gas-burner, we’re more interested in what kind of architecture it will use, if it will have four-wheel drive with two sets of gears, how many lockers it will feature, and if it will have locking hubs. Of course, angles and clearances are a curiosity as well.
Who knows how long Genesis will take to bring this off-roader to market, but when it does, we’ll see if it sticks the landing or flubs it.
Images via Genesis
