By Gareth Butterfield 
The Genesis GV60 is a car you don’t see very often, and it’s a pity, because it’s really very good.
From its distinctive looks to its sumptuous interior, it was the first ever EV to come out of the Korean brand, a luxury arm of the Hyundai/Kia group. You’ll find yourself explaining that to people a lot if you drive a Genesis, but there’s nowt wrong with exclusivity.
And there’s little to dislike about the GV60, which had a bit of a refresh in 2025, and now comes in three flavours: Pure, Sport, and Performance.
The latter is the one I’ve been living with for a week, and it’s a rather mental 483bhp mile muncher with the core DNA of Hyundai’ Ioniq 5 and Kia’s EV6 beneath its bodyshell.
And that’s a fine basis from which to start, because it gives the GV60 an 84kWh battery, an official WLTP range of around 311 miles for the Performance model, an 800V electrical architecture, ultra-rapid charging at up to roughly 240kW, and vehicle-to-load functionality.
This being the performance version, there are also some tempting trinkets from the bonkers Ioniq 5 N, like the arguably pointless Drift Mode, and the surprisingly fun pretend gear-shifting.
There’s also a Boost mode, operated from a button on the steering wheel, which gives you a 10-second uplift in power. I guess it’s useful for overtaking, but the GV60 Performance is hardly slow.
In fact, it can sprint to 60mph in less than four seconds, so it’s actually ridiculously quick. And that’s not all you get in this flagship, because it comes bundled with extras you’d have to pay handsomely for in other variants.
And that’s a good thing, because it costs £67,715. It’s a lot to ask from a brand that most people haven’t even heard of.
But the moment you sit inside, you start to get an idea of how well spent that money is. The GV60’s interior is stunning. From its enormous 27in screen that blurs the line between central infotainment and driver information surprisingly successfully, to the “Crystal Sphere” in the centre console that transforms itself in the most theatrical fashion into a rotary gear selector, everything inside feels lovely.
That is, until you get underway and you start to make some adjustments. The GV60 has a trick facial recognition system that can alleviate the need for a key, and inside that system monitors you to make sure you’re not nodding off.
But it’s far too sensitive, and actually quite militant. Even adjusting the climate control to compensate for the sun coming out will result in a polite telling off. Want to put a new destination into the sat nav? You’ll get in trouble for that, too.
There are plenty of modern safety features that do a great job of keeping us alive, but being chastised for glancing down for a moment to turn on a heated seat gets a bit tiresome.
That’s absolutely not true of the ride and handling, though. When you want it to be, the GV60 Performance is an effortless thing to stride from A to B with. It’s comfortable, refined, and easy to use.
And then, when you want it to turn into a silly play-thing, it’s got a ridiculous amount of power on tap. Obviously, it’s heavy, and the steering is basically numb, but intelligent adaptive suspension and all that torque can deliver quite a bit of fun.
That said, it’s trickier to make a case for the Performance version than some of its stablemates. In base “Pure” spec, the GV60 costs £54,115 and you still get most of the internal loveliness with that version, along with a perfectly healthy 226bhp.
Step up to the Sport version and it feels like a sweet spot, starting at £58,515 and offering 314bhp with an even better standard spec.
But the Performance model will doubtless be popular because who doesn’t love terrifying your mother-in-law with a spirited launch, and outpacing supercars in a straight line?
What I like the most about the Performance version, though, is its sheer subtlety. The more you see it, the more you like the looks, but it never screams of yobbishness in the way some fast EVs are starting to.
Instead you get a grown-up, elegant, comfortable, quick, and immensely likable version of the Kia EV6 with the added bonus of driving around in a car very few people have noticed before.
It’s a brilliant antidote to the usual German offerings, and in many ways, every bit as good.
