After growing in sales each year since launching in Australia in 2019, Korean luxury brand Genesis finally hit a stumbling block last year. However, it’s expecting to turn things around this year.
According to VFACTS figures, Genesis deliveries fell 26.9 per cent in 2024 compared to the year before, with 1400 vehicles reaching customers.
This was a sharper decline than rivals Lexus (down 10.2 per cent) and Audi (down 19.5 per cent).
Genesis still fell short of its these brands as well as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, though it beat out Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and Maserati.
The Hyundai-owned premium brand’s local boss, Justin Douglass, said he expects deliveries to increase in 2025 compared to last year.
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Genesis says it doesn’t share sales targets, and its global boss told Australian media the focus is on its existing clientele.
“At Genesis we really try to avoid setting sales goals. If we just set any figures, then we become the slave of these,” said Genesis’ global CEO Mike Song.
“Instead, we really want to build the relationship. We don’t sell cars, we just build a relationship.
“So so far, we successfully built over 5000 relationships with the Australian customers and each one of these customers is very important to our business.
“We just had a meeting with [Mr Douglass] here, then instead of bringing more new customers… we do more on existing customers to delight this 5000. In the near-term that is our ultimate goal.”
Genesis has acknowledged many Australians still aren’t aware of it.
“Awareness of the brand is slow,” said Andrew Tuitahi, director of marketing and product for Hyundai Motor Company Australia.
“I would say that from a local perspective, brand awareness is probably the biggest challenge that we have.
“We took some steps last year to try and accelerate some acknowledgement, awareness and consideration of the Genesis brand in Australia.
“We’ve seen some shifts on that front, and I think we’ll continue to see some shifts here throughout the course of this year.
“We do have some other brand marketing assets that will be going live throughout the course of 2025.”
Genesis’ local boss had an explanation for why deliveries fell in 2024.
“2023 deliveries… was a result of coming out of a pretty challenging period with supply disruptions due to COVID, due to semiconductors, there were massive logistical challenges throughout that period as well,” said Mr Douglass.
“Throughout that period, we were able to build a quite significant customer order bank, we just weren’t able to deliver them within that year. So a lot of those orders were being delivered throughout 2023.”
He blamed the drop in deliveries in part on a revitalisation of its retail network.
In short, some locations were temporarily out of commission, a loss keenly felt when Genesis has fewer than 10 retail locations nationwide.
“We also took the opportunity throughout that term to invest in facility upgrades as well, so we didn’t really have an appropriate offline backup at that point in time and as whilst we were doing it,” said Mr Douglass.
“What we found is we had a high number of customer orders coming through, but we also had our sales potential disrupted through obviously the Showcase developments.
While the delivery figure published in VFACTS represented a drop, Mr Douglass said, “In 2024 we had a very positive year in relation to customers that purchased our vehicles.”
“In a declining market that declined around 11 per cent, our order rate actually grew 17 per cent year-on-year.
“So again the positive for us in a market that’s declining, in the results that are reported. But we’re aware of it, obviously we grew year-on-year so again that’s a very positive sign for the brand and we have the expectation that we will grow this year over last year and all signs early on in January are very positive as well.”
He argued there’s “huge potential for Genesis to continue to grow” in our market.
Fresh product is coming in the shape of the updated Electrified GV70 and Electrified G80 during the first half of this year and the facelifted GV60 in the third quarter, while early next year will bring the first vehicle from Genesis’ new Magma high-performance line.
The brand currently sells vehicles under a fixed-price model through factory-owned showrooms, though this year it plans to open one or two locations with “agency partners” which it won’t own.
This will allow it to potentially expand its geographic footprint in our market, with these new locations offering the same sales and aftersales experience as factory-owned stores.
While Genesis doesn’t allow haggling on its prices, it is currently offering what it calls “deposit contribution” offers.
Until February 28, 2025, Genesis is offering $8000 off model year 2025 (MY25) GV80 vehicles, $10,000 off MY25 GV80 Coupe vehicles, and $5000 off MY24 GV70 vehicles if you buy through its Genesis Finance arm.
“The deposit contribution has resonated really well and it’s been quite successful for us since we’ve implemented it,” said Mr Douglass.
When asked whether these offers could be extended to other models, he said: “It’s possible, absolutely.”
Genesis says it doesn’t have a glut of stock on the ground, though Mr Douglass said the brand aims “to have a healthy mix of vehicles on the ground” for customers who don’t want to wait two to four months for a built-to-order vehicle.
When asked whether the significant discounts on, in particular, GV80 vehicles indicate buyer trepidation at its pricing, Mr Douglass said: “I think we’re still very well positioned in market.”
