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Hyundai’s Genesis sub-brand is planning a major shake up of the premium car ownership experience, firing a shot across the bow of its rivals with a plan to include a home-to-home delivery service, free servicing and parts and even a personal concierge as part of a hugely overhauled warranty program.
The program would mean owners would never have to visit a dealership to service their cars, with Genesis staff picking up and dropping off vehicles to a customer's home or office.
Hyundai Australia executives are under no illusion about the challenges they face in attracting buyers to a new (and not historically) premium player in Australia’s hotly contested market, and so are planning a game-changing ownership program that would phase out traditional dealerships to sweeten the Genesis deal.
Also promising to be both cheaper and “less pretentious” than existing premium marques, Hyundai Australia COO Scott Grant told CarsGuide that technology had made the typical showroom process “superfluous”.
“There’s obviously a lot of movement in the digitisation… of customer experience. Research can be done online, with simulations about product and the technical capabilities of bringing it to life online - all of those things make the typical showroom process a bit superfluous,” he said.
“With a home-to-home or home-to-office service operation…our philosophy is going to be based around the concierge operation where someone is empowered to look after you in all aspects, almost like a private banker or a that kind of service structure.
“We think it will be a little bit different in the marketplace, and for the most part, it will not require customers to come to any fixed operation or dealership point. We’re really trying to take the product and the brand to the customer.
“There’s a few final aspects of our program of starting the brand and bringing it to the market that haven't been completely approved. We’re definitely studying the concierge and convenience-type system, and the Genesis Club-type perspective.”
Hyundai’s Genesis Club is the international ownership program that, along with a five-year warranty with five years' free servicing, offers a vehicle pick up and delivery service, free major parts and even a service that repairs minor scratches and damage, too.
Genesis was launched as a standalone sub-brand internationally in 2015 in an attempt to poach sales from the premium marques. Only two models have been released to date; the G80 large sedan (which launched as the Hyundai Genesis in Australia), and the G90 limousine which only appeared overseas.
It's been a slow start in Australia, but executives are hoping the G70 mid-size sedan, scheduled for an Australian launch early next year, will help put the Genesis brand on the sales map, even in its hugely competitive segment, and one currently dominated by the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
Citing fellow challenger brand Infiniti (Nissan’s premium arm which has so far struggled to gain any meaningful traction in Australia), Mr Grant said he'd studied the Japanese brand’s launch strategy, and he was confident he could improve on it, promising the G70 would be the cheapest and best-equipped offering in its segment.
“We have made some observations about their launch plan, their distribution approach, their marketing approach, and we’ll be looking to improve on that," he said.
“We think the market is there, and that it will continue to grow. And in any growing market opportunity, there is the opportunity to launch and steal a small slice of that.
“That market is growing in Australia, luxury cars generally and performance cars specifically, and we can get a piece of that growth in time, even though we are a late entrant into that opportunity.
“What will make it different for us…being the freshest and newest brand in that market, we’ll have an opportunity to appeal to people on a less-pretentious level.”
Official pricing is yet to be confirmed, but expect the G70 range to start from around the $50k mark, a move that would undercut every key competitor in the segment. The C-Class, for example, starts at $61,900, while BMW’s 3 Series kicks off at $57,300. Fellow challenger brand Infiniti prices its entry-level Q50 at $53,900.
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