Not long ago, the Kia Stinger received a lot of praise for being the family sedan that nobody knew they would want. It seems that Genesis,—whose parent company Hyundai owns a 25 percent stake in Kia—didn’t take this lightly. The new Genesis G70, then, will reportedlt performance sedan that they claim will be the Kia’s closely related rival.
Hyundai and Kia will share the platform that the Stinger and G70 are both built on, making this rivalry a bit closer-to-home between the two buyer markets. Other than the platform, it is unlikely that the Stinger and G70 will have all that many similarities between them.
No numbers have been released for the G70 yet, but from the comments in a recent interview, it is clear that the 0-60 time will be under the Kia’s 4.9 seconds. Genesis spoke with Motoring and revealed that the platform is lighter than the Kia Stinger’s version, which may be the reason for the quicker acceleration. This leaves the option for the 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6 present in the Stinger to be repurposed in the Genesis, but no confirmation has been made of the powertrain as of yet.
The Stinger is a five-door touring sedan with a hatch, while the G70 is a pure sports sedan.
Guido Schenken, Hyundai’s Australian PR Manager
This leads your author to question just what market the G70 is looking to compete in. Will it hang with the BMW 3 Series, or does it step up to do battle with BMW’s M cars directly? Giving that it’s being called a “pure sports sedan”, I’m hoping for the latter, but anything is possible. Albert Biermann, lead of vehicle testing, mentioned that the drivability of the G70 and the Stinger will be very similar, but they would aim to fine-tune some differences.
The G70 is expected to make a full debut later this year at either the Frankfurt or Los Angeles Auto Show.