South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company is upping the ante with what would be the fastest home-grown car to be released in September.

The carmaker claims the Genesis G70 can sprint from 0 to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds and will compete with top German sedans like the BMW 3-series and Mercedes-Benz C-class.

The 0-100km/h performance represents a car’s up-front ability to accelerate. To date, the fastest car developed in Korea is Kia Stinger GT that accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds. The G70 shares the same manufacturing platform as the sister brand.

The G70 delivers a top-notch driving performance in the independent Genesis lineup covering the EQ900 to the G80. Albert Biermann, who previously headed BMW’s M division, has been overseeing the unit for the G70 responsible for every phase from development to tuning. Sources say the German vice president spent most of his time designing the rear-wheel-drive model with a minimally low empty vehicle weight and a more balanced weight ratio between the front and the real.

The Korean carmaker deployed top designers tapped from global luxury car brands to the G70 design unit. Former Bentley designers like Lee Sang-yup, vice president of Hyundai Motor Styling, and Yoon Il-hun, Chief Designer, Global Advanced Design at Genesis, took over the interior and exterior. Luc Donckerwolke, head of Hyundai Motor’s design center, who was Bentley’s design chief, was known to have coordinated the overall design under the brand’s design philosophy of ‘Athletic Elegance.’

By Park Chang-young

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