Genesis Magma wants your electric vehicle to feel and sound like a 9000 RPM track weapon: ArticleSubmission.news

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If you’ve ever gotten out of a blazingly fast EV and thought, “Why doesn’t this feel as exciting as the numbers suggest?”, then Genesis is clearly listening. The brand’s performance sub-label Magma is based on exactly this problem, and the first real proof is the upcoming GV60 Magma. On paper, it’s an electric crossover, but the experience is tuned to the sensations of a screaming naturally aspirated V6 engine revving to 9,000 rpm and “shifting” through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, an emotive package inspired in part by the twin-turbo V8 developed for Genesis’ Le Mans hypercar.

The idea isn’t to just throw in some video game sound effects and call it a day. In the GV60 Magma, the engines, software and artificial soundtrack are all connected, so the car mimics real upshifts, power peaks and downshifts in a way your inner ear and butt can actually feel. Keep pushing and the EV starts to behave like a highly stressed racing engine focused on the redline, with torque delivery and sound building together, rather than the instant “all at once” hit that many EVs offer. Genesis wants to trick your brain in the best way possible into thinking you’re using a traditional power drive intensively, rather than just relying on the quiet boost.

This is where motorsport comes into play. Not only does Magma borrow visual cues from its racing program, but it also draws on the same people who will be trophy hunting at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship. Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR 001 hypercar has been unveiled with a V8 hybrid powertrain aimed at WEC and IMSA competition, and development drivers such as Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani have provided feedback on how the road cars should feel and respond. Add in the guidance of legendary racer Jacky Ickx and the watchful eye of Genesis creative director Luc Donckerwolke, and you start to see how seriously the brand takes this track-to-road story.

The GV60 Magma also gets a decent hardware makeover to support sensory theater. Genesis promises a significant improvement in body control and steering response compared to the existing GV60 Performance model, supported by revised damping that can be firmer for a mountain road or relaxed enough so that potholes don’t interfere with your commute. More attention is also paid to interior refinement, with active noise cancellation, strategic insulation and deeply adjustable seats ensuring you stay fresh even when the car pretends to be a race car. Crucially, if you wake up in a “leave me alone” mood, you can turn off the audio experience and glide along in near-silence, or dial it back so that the simulated engine is just a distant layer and not the main event.

Magma doesn’t stop at hot crossovers either. The other half of this new performance identity lives in something much more exotic: the mid-engine Magma GT supercar. Revealed as a concept with proper supercar proportions and a set of butterfly doors, it previews a production model that is expected to have a V8 behind the seats and serve as a halo for the brand’s motorsport ambitions. Although Genesis hasn’t laid out all the specs, executives have already hinted that the GT’s layout will reflect what works in the competition, and they’ve made it clear that this isn’t designed to be a plug-in hybrid. Think more of a pure, lightweight supercar with a focus on repeatable performance on the track, rather than a gasoline-electric flagship model that chases numbers.

The key words are strength to weight and authenticity. Current GT and Prototype racing classes are in the region of around 670 horsepower, and Genesis’ GMR 001 hypercar was designed specifically for this range. Translating this kind of hardware and know-how into a road-going Magma GT means engineers can measure real racing stints rather than just a few headline-grabbing launch control runs. For enthusiasts, that should mean a car that feels alive at ten tenths, yet still has the design features and interior polish you’d expect from a modern Genesis. The company clearly wants the GT to be the car that gets people to stop dismissing it as “Hyundai’s luxury brand” and start mentioning it in the same breath as established European exotics.

Beyond pure electric vehicles and V8 supercars, Genesis is quietly laying the foundation for a family of electrified powertrains that sit between these two extremes. The brand has already confirmed that longer-range electric vehicles are coming to market, which use an internal combustion engine as a generator to power the battery and provide long range without constant fast charging. Early reports point to a GV70-based EREV around the middle of the decade, and the broader Hyundai group has signaled that EREVs with high-performance engines will achieve serious range. At the same time, Genesis has backed off its EV only after 2025 plan and committed to hybrids for most new models, opening the door for Magma-tuned performance hybrids with integrated direct racing technology.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about all of this is that Genesis Magma is not tied to a recipe. Company planners keep stressing that there is “no prescribed powertrain” for the sub-brand, which means you end up with a high-revving, fake-but-convincing V6 soundtrack in an electric vehicle on one side and a growling mid-engine V8 on the other. If the GV60 Magma really is the hardest to make, as they claim, then the rest of the lineup could come together quickly. For now, the message is simple: Genesis wants high-performance cars that look like this, feel like this and, yes, sound like this, whether they’re using fuel or electrons. That’s a promising starting point for a company that has clearly decided it wants to sit at the same table with the old performance guard.

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