How do you stand out in an increasingly crowded new car market? Especially when you’re competing against some of the most established and well respected brands?
You kick their arses in public.
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Or, at least that’s what Genesis is trying to do with its expansion into performance cars and motor racing under its new Magma sub-brand. At a glitzy launch at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France last week, top management management made it clear what the goal of Magma is.
“ Magma will play a key role in driving Genesis toward the future,” said Jose Munoz, global CEO of Hyundai and Genesis. “By 2030, Genesis global sales will reach 350,000 units annually, a 55 per cent increase from today’s volume and Magma will be an active contributor to that growth. We expect Magma models to account for around 10 per cent of each Genesis model’s volume.”
READ MORE: Riding shotgun with a Le Mans legend in the Genesis GV60 Magma
Genesis, the luxury division of Hyundai, only arrived on the motoring scene less than a decade ago, but it has already surpassed one million sales around the world. Still, that’s a relatively small amount of total luxury car sales, so the brand is looking to give its image a boost in the most reliable way car companies know – motor racing.
Ferrari has built its entire brand around Formula 1 (even if it has struggled as much as it has succeeded), while the likes of Mercedes-AMG, Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche and more use on-track competition to both drive innovation within the company while also attracting millions of spectator eyeballs.
Genesis has avoided the brightest lights of Formula 1 and is instead starting in the World Endurance Championship, a globe-trotting series that pits prototype sportscars against each other. It is currently enjoying a boom period for manufacturer interest, so Genesis will get to race against Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin, Peugeot, Alpine and more in the coming years.
READ MORE: Leaner and meaner – Why Genesis is going racing
It’s the perfect opportunity for a young brand like Genesis to demonstrate to the world it can beat those famous brands on the racetrack, and hopefully enjoy the benefits of the old adage – ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’.
That’s certainly what Munoz and his team are hoping to achieve, a similarly symbiotic relationship between success in racing and sales in the showroom.
“Genesis, Magma and Genesis Magma Racing – GMR. These are three assets which will play a very synergistic role to enhance each other,” explained Mike Song, Global Head of Genesis. “Not only for Genesis, or only for Magma, or only for GMR – it’s all together. When these work together closely, then we may have some very good lessons learned from GMR into Magma. Then Magma would affect standard Genesis products. And with the standard Genesis, we may find new ways to delight our customers.”
The GV60 Magma will be the first production car in the Magma line-up, set to arrive in Australia in the second half of 2026. What comes next is unclear, with Munoz committing to having a Magma variant of every Genesis model in the future, while also committing to building the Magma GT Concept as a production car to act as a halo model for the brand.
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