This car maker tried to make buying a car easier – people don’t like it

Genesis tried to be different – but it turns out people just want the same as usual.

Hyundai’s luxury brand took a unique approach to selling cars when it arrived in Australia, skipping the traditional car showroom in favour of CBD-based ‘Studios’ and direct-to-consumer sales. Genesis even went so far as to bring cars to the home or office of potential customers, to save the time and effort of going to a dealer.

But after years of steady but slow growth, Genesis is making some radical changes for 2025 and beyond, announcing plans to open more traditional showrooms around Australia.
Genesis Australia head Justin Douglass confirmed that it will add more showrooms and ‘agents’ to help double its retail footprint. These new venues will be a more conventional showroom in areas in familiar car buying areas, to provide a more familiar experience.

He dismissed the suggestion that a lack of showrooms has been limiting the brand’s sales potential, but made it clear he’s hoping it will help grow Genesis in its fight with Mercedes, BMW and Audi.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s been holding us back, but it’s certainly an opportunity to grow our customer base,” Douglass told Torquecafe. “We do reach customers far and wide and our current locations aren’t necessarily the most convenient to them. So, I know that by expanding as we spoke about earlier today, we’re going to have the opportunity to absolutely grow our customer base.”

Despite an expanding line-up, Genesis still lags well behind its more-established competition. Between January and September it sold only 1082 vehicles, compared to BMW’s 19,644, Mercedes’ 14,961 and Audi’s 11,156. Even Lexus sold 9760 new models and Volvo 6974.

The plan calls to add between two new retail locations in 2025 and between two and four in 2026, which would double its current footprint.

While Genesis has always been cautious on publicly revealing its sales aspirations, it’s clear it wants to close the gap to its rivals. Hyundai Australia chief operating officer, John Kett, believes this expansion is the most logical next step, particularly as large parts of the country are still not covered.

“I think if we do this correctly, the way that Justin is planning to roll it out, the two to six stores over the next 18 months, maybe we’ll invest in some, maybe we won’t, we feel very good about it,” Kett said. “We’ve got one store in Western Australia. Do we need another one? Maybe not. We’ve got no existence in Adelaide, we’ve got no existence in Tasmania, we’ve got no existence in the ACT, we’ve got two in the northern region, so Queensland, we feel good about that. We’ve got a couple in Sydney. Could we have a couple more possibly? We’ve got a couple in Melbourne, could we have a couple more possibly?

So, I think what we want to do, Steve, is grow into that volume, make sure that that agent is getting a return on their investment, and then build from that again.”

The will continue to offer its ‘Genesis-to-you’ service that will pick up an owner’s car for service and leave a courtesy car. Genesis owners can also use Hyundai dealerships for service, if that’s not possible.