Episode 426: 2026 Genesis Electrified GV70, Japan Mobility Show, Listener Questions

Hello, and welcome to the Unnamed Automotive Podcast.

My name is Sammy Hajj Asad, and with me as always is my good friend and fellow automotive

journalist, Benjamin Hunting.

Say hi to the people, Ben.

Greetings human listeners and November listeners.

Greetings to everyone.

If this is the first time you're listening to our podcast, thank you for trying something

new.

I will reiterate, Ben and I are a pair of automotive journalists.

But you know what?

More important than our career path, the more important fact is that we're really

good friends.

Right, Ben?

Sammy, I don't think I would describe myself as having a career path.

I have more like a career labyrinth, where it's just been twists and turns and at the

center of that labyrinth is a minotaur waiting to devour me.

You haven't gotten to him yet.

I don't know.

Maybe the minotaur is right behind me.

Check quick.

Maybe the minotaur is this podcast.

Maybe the minotaur is our friendship.

Very true.

It is a very strange animal, our friendship.

Horned and hairy.

Yes.

And it has resulted in this podcast, which I love doing every single week.

And clearly our listeners do too because we get so many great positive feedback from

our listeners and we got some questions this week that I can't wait to dive into.

But before we do that, I want Ben to plug a couple of the publications that he's recently

written for because I love letting people go and read your stuff because I think to

begin with, Ben didn't think he was as good on the podcast as he is written, but I think

he's good at both.

I have no idea what you're rambling about and it's weird and uncomfortable.

You can find my work at Hagerty, at Motor Trend, at Driving.ca, and at AutoTrader.ca.

And you can find my work at Driving.ca and AutoTrader.ca.

Ben, the main reason I was thinking about this is because you recently bought a New

York car on your car to your garage in 2015.

And I was joking.

I was like, I wonder what our reviews, if we had reviewed it, what our reviews were

like and you showed me a video that you did of the Outback and I did one the year following.

And I was like, look at how much we've evolved since then.

It's so much fun to look back.

Yeah.

Back then my hair was actually red and not white.

So that's the thing I noticed the most.

That's what you noticed.

Yes.

Well, I was watching with the sound off.

I noticed how smooth and calm and confident you were when doing that video.

Something that occasionally you don't have on this podcast, Ben.

But I think it's because me and you just have a way more natural conversation and sometimes

conflicting.

You're saying I'm not smooth on the podcast?

Oh, no, not at all.

I don't know how to respond to that.

I honestly feel like responding by hitting this big red sign.

Stop button.

No, don't do that.

Okay.

I'm just joking, Ben.

Of course.

I think you're the smoother of the two of us.

Definitely the more knowledgeable, which is why I usually prefer you to go first.

It's not a competition.

You think it's not?

But if it was, I wouldn't show up.

Well, anyways, it's why I prefer you go first when we come to our reviews.

No, I think you prefer me to go first this week because you didn't drive a car this week.

No, I got stuck in the snow and I didn't want to.

What does that mean?

I mean, the snow comes every year.

Yeah, but I wasn't prepared for it this time.

Neither was I.

We got hit by a blizzard this week and it was really surprising because at this point in,

I guess, what you would call the climate crisis, I can no longer predict when snow is going

to happen where I live.

It seems like every year it gets pushed back farther and farther where we get snow that

actually stays.

Like, sure, we'll get snow that is there.

We could have a day of like bad snow and then the next day we're up above freezing again.

The sun comes out and it all melts.

So I don't really expect snow to stay until January.

And I've had some clients ask me about doing some winter testing.

OK, and my responses were like, well, we're going to have to plan for that in January

because I just don't see it happening before then.

And I have these vehicles that I had booked for the vehicle I'm driving this week,

which I had been asked about winter testing.

And the day I pick it up, everything is fine.

And then that night, literally five inches of snow and it's still outside.

It's still there four days later.

I think it will probably be gone by next week.

But this is this is a slap in the face.

We don't have winter tires on the outback yet.

I don't have winter tires on this press car.

I don't have winter tires on the Jeep because it doesn't go out in the winter.

And I needed to tow my this is getting sorry to spiral,

but my snowblower is transmission broke and I needed to take it somewhere to repair it.

And I have a trailer that's now behind like a huge snow bank that I can't get to.

And I can't attach it to my Jeep, which I can't drive in the snow anyway.

So it's just this whole weird thing.

Yeah, unexpected.

No, I mean, I basically you asked me why I didn't have a car

or you've mentioned that I don't have a car and I was explaining why.

Because I yeah, basically I got caught off guard by the by the snowstorm.

I did not know what to do about that.

I have a sports car with, you know, usually I have winter tires in the winter with it.

But I prioritized our family vehicle the week prior and

or maybe that's the same week, actually, and didn't put the winter tires on the on the

FRS. And as a result, that snow, I was like, I'm not going to get it's usually

it's like it's like a 100 kilometer an hour.

I mean, 100 kilometer or 200 kilometer round trip.

And I was like, I'm not going to make it back in the FRS.

It's insane.

You know, so even yesterday, I had some people over who were installing new lighting

in my garage and now my garage has been transformed from a murder

dungeon at night to a usable space.

But I had to move the Jeep out into the driveway for that to happen.

And like trying to get it back into the garage after a day's worth of melting

and refreezing, the rear end was just like spinning and sliding.

And I barely touched the gas.

I just let it crawl in because it's on a set of I want to say discoveries.

So they are pretty.

They're decent all season tires.

But all season tires are trash in the winter.

So I think I can do and I don't have four wheel drive in the Jeep right now.

The front driveshaft has been removed.

So like it's a bit of a situation when it comes to traction.

So instead of testing anything, I'm I just checked the news.

I I gathered a bunch of.

Well, don't spoil it.

Why? You don't you don't want me to spoil it?

Well, it's a surprise. I mean, it was.

OK, well, then we'll deal with a surprise later in the episode.

Ben got to drive a car.

Yeah, it's because I planned ahead.

I got to drive a 2026 Genesis Electrified GV 70, which is

one of the worst names of any car out there.

I feel like depending on the day of the week,

I don't know whether electrified comes before or after the GV 70 part.

But that's balanced out by the fact that it is a truly excellent vehicle

in almost every respect.

So it's weird whenever I had this mental block where I'm like the electrified

GV 70 and it feels so a little twee to call it that.

Why didn't they just call it the GV 70 electric or the GV 70 EV?

Sammy, what do you what do you think the branding is about that?

I don't really know what the branding is.

Why they've decided to take that approach?

Because I truly think just called the GV 70 EV.

But maybe it's because people already don't know what a G make.

They feel like as a new brand, people already don't know what a GV 70 is.

But I don't think that's true because I think one out of every three vehicles

that Genesis sells is a GV 70.

It is the most popular vehicle to have in the fleet.

I don't know, man, you're asking the wrong guy.

I've I've thought I haven't thought about it as in-depth as you have.

But you're 100 percent right.

It is so bizarre that they've they've chosen because nobody else is doing it.

Right. I mean, why not electrified GV 70 the next 100 years?

Yeah. But I mean, even BMW just calls their EVs basically a different model

name with I five or I four or I seven. Right. That's true.

It's not the I five EV and same with Mercedes,

which calls them EQ, EQ, whatever, EQ, but EQS.

But that's confusing, too, because Mercedes has like the EQS sedan and the EQS SUV.

Yeah, that's way worse the way you put it that way.

And then Audi goes E Tron Q six.

There isn't a gas Q six, if I remember correctly.

Not not anymore. No.

Or I don't think.

And then so like.

Actually, so basically the only one with like a one to one of like

electric car and gas cars on the same name and platform would be BMW.

I think that electrified is what throws me off.

It just seems like a really big word.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I suppose never name a child look like on the on the owner

on the registration, right? You would never name a child electrified.

No, I suppose not yet.

I think eventually that might be coming.

That's four syllables.

How many four syllable names are out there?

There are some.

Mine's three syllables.

OK.

Yeah, anyway, I don't know where I'm going with that.

The deal is the 20.

How many Octavius is do you know?

I think I know one.

You know, an Octavius. Yeah, I'm impressed.

Is Alec, Alec van, Alec van?

OK, Alexander, Alexander, I guess.

Yeah, that's a little dry.

Dry, OK. Alexander electrified.

Eight syllables, very hard when you're first learning to write.

Yes. 2026 means some updates for this vehicle.

Not a ton of updates, but a few of them I think are important.

I'm going to start with what I like the most.

It's the same platform as always, which means it's a GV 70

with the gas engine and the gas tank and the fuel lines all ripped out.

Transmission is gone in its place.

A pair of electric motors and a battery below the floor.

So it pushes up the floor just a little bit.

You don't really notice it as much in the GV 70

electrified as you do in the electrified G80,

which had a similar kind of setup, because the ceiling is is tall enough

where I think if you were a tall person with a long torso,

you might notice the ceiling is close, but it's very well disguised.

All of that stays the same.

The the difference in the drivetrain is the battery is a little bit bigger.

And I do mean a little bit. It's about 10 percent larger.

I'm going to get the exact number here.

I believe it's eighty four kilowatts now kilowatt hours. Sorry. OK.

And why can I find it's interesting?

You mentioned I'm not I'm going to while you're looking this up.

Well, while you do rail everything, I'm just going to stall you for time here.

You mentioned it's eighty four kilowatt hours.

OK, then I won't stall you for time any further.

And that gives it two hundred and forty three miles of range

in the vehicle, I drove, which is the prestige trim.

There's only two trims in Canada.

Procedures the top. There's three trims in the states.

It has the same two trims at the top as Canada.

And then there's a base one that's just called all wheel drive.

If you have a 19 inch rim on the car, it goes up to two hundred and sixty three miles,

which is like what three hundred and ninety kilometers, something like that.

That's OK. It's OK. It's fine.

But we're going to get to whether that's realistic or not a little bit later.

The power stays the same.

You have four hundred and twenty nine horsepower, I believe.

That is an excellent amount of horsepower for an electric for an electric crossover.

Like that is how much is the platform capable of handling, you know?

Yeah, well, it's considerably heavier than the regular GV 70, right?

So that that comes into play.

Why can I not find these?

I'm looking at the numbers right here.

The the torque for the vehicle is five hundred and sixteen pound feet,

which is really right. Sorry, it's not four twenty eight, it's four twenty nine.

Five hundred and sixteen pound feet, which is you're off by one horsepower.

You're apologizing for that.

If you want more power, there's a ten second boost feature.

There's a non steering wheel.

It gives you four hundred and eighty three horsepower.

I want to make, you know what?

The next time I get one of these things in some open space,

I'm going to make sure that the ten seconds is legit.

I hope they're not short changing people.

I hope they're not. You know what I mean?

I hope you bring a stopwatch,

because I don't think we can count on you being able to reliably count to ten.

Yeah, I think you might hit eleven or twelve.

And yeah, the thing about that boost button, though,

it's not always available. So when I picked up, what do you mean?

It's not always a bit. It's not there like physically.

It's not physically available.

It's like a little dome that goes over the button and it just disappears.

What? You just tap it and it's like a like a hard candy shell.

No, what happens is if you're below twenty percent battery, like I was,

and you push boost, it tells you you don't have enough battery.

Oh, you like living on the you like living on the edge.

I love that idea. I had no choice.

I picked up the vehicle in Montreal with a fifty five percent charge.

Yeah. And I ended up at my place at around 20

because you decided to use booth then it was cold weather.

And also I took I stopped and took a lot of photos.

So like I was I was tooling around.

But I wanted to try boost because I was off the highway.

So, you know, it adds an element of danger.

It's more interesting.

In any case, in terms of driving, so that's not a big change, right?

The the amount of battery that ten percent,

it gives you like literally a handful of extra miles.

It's not a big deal.

I think it's like ten extra miles or so on the base model.

But in any case,

the vehicle drives really nice.

It is super quiet.

The GV 70 is not a sporty vehicle.

It's always been more of a refined, comfort oriented vehicle.

And when you throw this electric drive train into the mix,

it only underscores that.

And I really appreciate that about about this SUV.

It's it's great to drive.

The power is enough to do whatever you want to do.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the Blazer SS, which had like what?

Six hundred pound feet of torque or something like that.

I didn't need all of that.

And I didn't appreciate it like it didn't make me like the vehicle more.

I don't think I would like the GV 70 more if it had 200 more horsepower

or a hundred additional pound feet of torque.

It just doesn't matter to me.

And I don't think it matters to most people

who are shopping for this vehicle.

So it's it's comfortable.

The steering is fine.

The acceleration is perfect in all situations.

Where it falls down a little bit is actual mileage.

So OK, it was somewhat cold when I picked it up

and a little bit colder when I brought it back.

I would say the day that I returned to the vehicle,

I drove 80 miles to get it back to the fleet.

And it was just about freezing.

Over the 200 or 300 miles or so that I drove the vehicle,

I got 39 kilowatt hours per 100 miles of efficiency.

That translates into about 213 miles per battery,

which is like 30 less than the 20 inch or 20 inch rooms that I had.

Yeah, a little bit more than 10 percent off.

Yes. What do you mean, 10 percent off?

Like a 10 percent reduction.

Well, yeah, definitely, definitely much more.

I mean, 30 miles out of 240.

That's going to be like what, 13, 14, 13?

Yeah, sure. I was I was just doing rough math in my head.

Yes. Well, I need more than I need.

I know you're very specific.

You were earlier talking about specific about the one

extra horsepower earlier threatening to count to 10 with like this.

And now I can't even now.

I feel like we can't rely on that.

213 miles is not great.

13 percent decrease from the 13 to 14 percent

decrease of the estimated range.

And do you think that's because of the temperature or just something else?

It's really hard to tell because there's so many factors that can go into it.

But the reason I underscore this is because 243 miles

is already on the low side for a vehicle in this class.

The pricing on this model is not that ridiculous.

It's seventy five thousand in the States for the top, top trim.

I believe the base model is about 10 grand less in Canada.

It's eighty eight thousand,

which is 10 grand more than the advanced version of the vehicle,

which is what they call the mid tier trim. OK.

Anyway, the the price point there,

you're starting to look at vehicles like the BMW IX,

which is somewhat more expensive.

I like the IX quite a lot. I like the IX a lot.

It's somewhat larger.

It has it starts at a higher price,

but the prestige trim of the GV 70 overlaps.

It's actually more expensive than some models of the IX.

So you're in like a mixed zone where you. Yeah, that's insane.

I would prefer the IX entirely. I think it's bigger.

I think it's bigger.

Don't don't forget the fact that there's some there's some things

I'm going to get into as to why you might not talk to me out of it.

I'm not going to talk you out of it,

but I am going to say that as with most BMWs, you have to pay more for features.

Oh, right. Like the most basic features, too.

With a Genesis, you get a ton of stuff for each trim level, really great stuff.

And you also get the best cabin that you could possibly get at this price,

which I want to talk about that in more detail.

But just continuing my thought,

the IX and like even the EQ are way, way ahead of this vehicle on range.

And some versions are way, way ahead on power.

So it's in a weird zone.

Genesis came out with this vehicle fairly early.

There was no IX, I believe, when the first version of this vehicle came out.

So they're continuing it along as other companies have approached the market

with ground up EVs instead of converting their EVs, right?

Like the IX and the EQ were designed from the start to be electric vehicles,

which means they get lots of advantages when it comes to aero and weight

and that kind of thing.

So it's not exactly a fair comparison,

but it is a comparison that people will be making when they're looking at buying these things.

Now, the charging speed on the Genesis kind of makes up for the fact

that it doesn't have great range.

This has the same EGMP platform as Hyundai and Kia,

which means it has a hundred volt charging capability,

which means you can theoretically charge it like 350 kilowatts.

Most of the time, it'll be probably like 240 to 60 on a compatible charger.

That that's a lot faster than a lot of its rivals.

However, for 2026, this vehicle moves to the next charger.

Oh, not this, not this.

Oh, no. That means that not only do you have to have an adapter to adapters,

one for a level two CCS, one for a level three CCS,

the combined charging standard, which is what most other EVs up until this model

you have used, if you do go to a supercharger and plug it in like a native

Tesla supercharger, you're probably tapping out around 150 kilowatts

because the low voltage charging of the Tesla

cannot interface with the high voltage platform on the Genesis.

To achieve the best possible charging speeds.

So that's something to keep in mind with this vehicle.

Something that's not my major concern.

My major concern is all of these adapters that have been introduced into the market,

which I'm not sure like that's a lot of power to deal with like an adapter.

It's not like just like a dongle for like USB C to USB, you know, A or whatever.

Like they're they're huge.

They're like, I don't know.

I've read a lot of horror stories about people dealing with adapters

that seem to be difficult to interface with the car or the or the charger

or both or even throwing in the cold weather.

Yeah, even throwing that all out the window.

They're annoying.

They're clunky and you have to have them with you, right?

Like when they take up they could potentially if it's a dongle,

it would take up more more cargo room.

I mean, I don't know what you mean by dongle.

The adapters are large, chunky pieces of plastic, right?

Yeah, they do take up space.

It is annoying.

I don't like them.

I'm not happy about this.

And if you live in Canada, especially there are almost no Tesla super

chargers in Canada, very, very small number relative relative to the U.S.

Yeah, relative to every other charging thing in Canada.

Yeah, yeah.

Like it's a very small number.

So you're going to be inconvenienced.

That's just the bottom line.

The bigger issue of guard with the sorry, one second.

What caught me off guard is that the regular level two chargers

that we've come to like just use and rely on are now and are like everywhere,

basically are now useless to these vehicles with NACS points.

I thought there would be another port on some of these cars for just that thing.

And you'd have to go to Europe to get your dual port cars.

Yeah.

And the NACS would just be for level three charging.

But that's not the case at all.

You need to use that adapter for fast charging in.

No, you need to use two adapters.

You can't use the same adapter for L2 as you use for L3.

The design of a CCS plug is such that if if the.

So when you look at a CCS charge plug, there's a circle part.

And then underneath, there's kind of a rectangle part.

Yes.

And when when you do level two charging, you only connect to the circle part.

Right. But when you do level three charging,

you connect to the two bottom ports as well as well.

Yeah, I love that.

I think that's a great little like you're using the same port for two different.

I mean, I guess NACS for level two and level three, they use the same port, too.

Here's why it sucks for adapters.

The way the standard is designed is if you have those bottom two ports connected,

you cannot charge at L2.

It just won't. It just has no deal.

It says it says no deal.

It thinks you're connected to a level to a level three.

And it's expecting.

So you can't have a single adapter because you could say,

oh, well, I'll just connect to everything.

And then the car will know how much power it needs.

It's like, no, if those bottom two things are connected,

it thinks you're on a level three charger.

So you actually have to have first a level two charger adapter plug

that only connects to the top part and then also a level three charger plug

that connects to the whole thing so that when you interface with the plug itself,

you're not you're not getting like the weird the whole weird situation.

Because like once that once that cable connects and it sees that, oh,

those those two bottom plugs are there,

it's going to try to initiate a level three charge or whatever.

It's annoying.

So did you have a level two charger at home?

Yes. What's the story?

What did you use?

How did it charge?

Well, I use the same.

It's the same as when I had the EV6 earlier this year.

It comes with a couple of adapters.

They plug in.

They rattle around in the back or they have bags for them.

There's like a bag, but the bag rattles around, right?

The real problem I had was boost mode, it certainly will.

The first night that I charged it, I started, as I mentioned earlier,

at about 20 percent and then charging stopped around 9 p.m.

I would say six or seven hours later and it stopped at 76 percent

and the car refused to charge.

Now, I don't know why that happened.

We had some power flickering over the course of the day.

We're enough where my UPS for my computer, my power supply,

it engaged for like a second kind of deal.

But in the past, I've had that happen with many EVs and had no problems.

It would interrupt the charging says the charging session, sure.

But when I went out for the Genesis that morning

and I saw that it wasn't charging anymore,

I tried to plug it back in to see if it would charge again.

And it said charging unsuccessful, like actually physically.

Sorry, physically, it's audibly says it.

Yeah, I love that about Hyundai things.

They talk. Yeah, I reset my charger.

I updated the firmware on my charger.

It didn't work.

I went to another L2 charger at a winery down the road.

It did not work.

I went to two other level three chargers.

Neither of those work.

So I at that point, I was pretty sure.

No superchargers.

There are no superchargers anywhere near me.

Yeah, the closest supercharger is 100 kilometers, 60 miles from where I live.

That's brutal.

Quebec has the least number of superchargers compared to any of the provinces.

That's wild.

Because we have a massive CCS network far more than anywhere else in Canada.

And superchargers, there's just no point.

I mean, it's it's not the reason why Canada has so many more CCS chargers

is because in the US, many of the charging networks are private.

So it makes sense that Tesla had a large charging network

because they needed to build that out in order to get people to buy their cars,

right? And then you had other companies come in and try to build their own

or sponsor other charging networks because they were building their own EVs

that had CCS plugs, whereas in Canada, it's a small market.

So Tesla is was a leader here for a long time in terms of sales,

but they're not going to invest the same amount of money.

Canada is too large and the population is too.

It's not dense enough.

So Toronto, for example, has a decent number of superchargers,

but in Montreal and and Quebec for for that matter,

the province had already invested a ton of money in CCS infrastructure

because that made no most sense for the most number of people

because it was far more than just Tesla was using it.

So all that investment created this huge network.

Like there are so many fast chargers here,

but they actually just installed two more fast chargers within a half hour drive

in my house. There's already four or five

fast chargers within, I would say, a five minute drive.

And that's crazy. I live in the middle of nowhere.

So OK, anyway, you've just been stuck with

you've just been basically stuck with this thing that's not charging anymore.

Yeah, I'm talking this thing that's not charging anymore.

I can safely eliminate the adapters because even the level three adapter wasn't working.

And I brought it back to Genesis and they are trying a reset on the vehicle.

They is something that only they can do at a dealership.

Unfortunately, they it's, you know, how sometimes there are

we're able to reset infotainment systems when we have problems.

And sometimes that will a bundle dance, paddle dance sometimes.

Yeah, it'll reset other things like traction controls.

It'll reset advanced driver assistance, that kind of thing.

Anyway, in this case, it doesn't work.

So I'm waiting to hear back what the problem is.

Hopefully they come up with something soon and just reach out.

So that was the one problem I had with the vehicle.

I want to go back to

what I was super, super impressed by.

And that's the fact that for 2026, there are some changes

that have been made to the exterior of the GV 70.

It's the same as the gas model.

It also got these refreshes, but they're not major.

What I really, really liked was the interior of the car.

It is so gorgeous.

Yeah, fantastic.

Like it has Genesis does not miss when it comes to its interiors.

I think that's the major thing I've come to accept with this auto brand.

And they're even better now.

Like it's how can it be even better?

So I was really struck by it because I came out of the Lucid air just before.

Oh, yeah. And that's a high end car.

That is a six figure car.

And you figure it.

I can't keep saying figure a six figure car.

And you're like, oh, it should definitely have a cabin that reflects that fact.

And when I was in it, we talked about last week, how it just seemed kind of austere

and restrained.

And then I get inside this Genesis, which retails for like 30, 40 grand less,

a minimum.

And it's just gorgeous.

Like not only have they upped the attention to the detail in this top trim

level I had, had beautiful Napa leather seats, diamond quilt stitching,

nice stitching on the dashboard, two ton leather on the dash.

It had this this ambient lighting, which you see in so many electric vehicles now,

which is pretty standard.

But it was integrated into the armrests that had these, I guess it was like a

walnut or like a light wood trim on the sides.

And then at night, the light shines through it.

Like you're looking at like a galaxy or like a gaseous nebula or something.

It was so nice.

The car is just really beautiful inside my one complaint and it now has like a

27 inch infotainment slash gauge cluster rectangle screen on the dash.

And you look at everything else and you're like, oh, this is so beautiful.

And then I have this bog standard piece of black plastic sitting there.

And it just doesn't fit like it doesn't detract, but it doesn't add anything to

the cabin, which I think is too bad.

It's by far, and this is you were earlier talking about how much you like the IX.

I like the IX as well.

The summer, I actually drove it up to visit you.

I had a great experience with it.

I got it down to like what, 6% battery on the way home and it was still trucking.

The interior in the GV 70 blows the IX away.

The IX is totally fine, but Genesis, for a luxury experience, it feels so hard for me.

It feels special.

That's so crazy.

But how is it hard for you to believe you know, BMW interior?

I do know BMW interiors.

And I think the only thing with BMW interiors are like, sometimes they're super

gimmicky, they've got like tablets and we are like touchscreens in weird places now.

And I'm just like.

Well, they just try to make things a little bit too tech heavy, I guess,

in terms of in terms of usability, I don't have a problem with BMW interiors.

I don't want to feel like I'm trash talking them.

It's a different aesthetic and it works and it's good.

But I feel like I feel like Genesis is just bringing a different

they're they're playing a different game.

Yeah, that's how it feels like they're not even in the same sport.

It's like Genesis was like, OK, we get you like this techno

moderate modernism, you're using nice materials.

We're going to make something that feels simultaneously old school plush

while still futuristic and of the moment.

That's kind of how I feel about it.

That's good. That's a great way to describe it. OK, great.

I don't have much more to say about this vehicle.

I really like it. I recommend people drive it.

It does have its flaws.

Obviously, I had this weird charging thing, but I will say

this is the first time on any Hyundai or Kia or Genesis EGMP vehicle

where I've had a charging issue.

So maybe this is just a teething problem.

There is also possibly something that happened to the vehicle

prior to me picking it up where it was plugged into a 110 volt outlet,

which it's not supposed to be able to do.

Someone had done that using a third party charging system

and the vehicle is not designed to accept 110 volts of current.

It might have affected the charging system, and that's why it's shut down.

But the other flaw in this, if there's only one other flaw in this vehicle,

it's the range.

You're not going to be a range champion with this model.

If that's really important to you, you might want to look elsewhere.

Everyone else, I love the GV70 Electrified or Electrified GV70

or however you want to say it.

And it's a strong recommendation from me. OK, great.

Do you want to go into my little surprise or do you want to go into our listener question?

No, let's hit the surprise first.

OK, well, my favorite thing that was going on in the past few weeks

was the Tokyo Mobility Show or Tokyo Mobility Salon

and the SEMA Show, which is happening this week as well.

So two really cool shows that you and I both I think both have attended

and covered in the past in person.

And today we get to do the the glamorous job of doing it from our desktop,

which is great too. So where do you want me to start?

I have, you know, maybe a few cars from both.

I'm more interested in Japan, to be honest. OK.

So I think the major thing to talk about when it comes to Japan is Toyota.

Toyota showed up, Toyota and Lexus showed up with a bajillion concepts

and also really important to talk about these concepts because

it's so weird for an automaker to introduce North American press

and show them concepts unless they're for sure going to make

a production versions of these cars.

And I think there's one car in particular, especially when it comes to Lexus

that is worth pointing out. This is the I think this in particular,

it's called the Lexus.

Oh, no, the LS van and sport concept.

No. So let's talk about there's there's hits and misses here.

First of all, they've decided one to make a new brand

that goes above Lexus, basically Rolls Royce and Bentley air like

like concept in terms of in terms of luxury.

It's century. That's what they're going to be calling it.

And the century, the Toyota century has been around for a long, long,

long time and it's been seen as kind of hundred years, hundred years, Sammy.

Yeah, I think that's about right.

The century. OK.

And they're going to make a they're going to make a.

No, I don't think it's been it's not 100 years.

It was sorry.

And they've decided to make a new brand.

I think specifically for Japanese market,

we'll see whether or not that's going to come to absolutely no way.

This comes here.

You think they can they can just make a role like a Rolls Royce?

I think the only people in the market.

I think the only market in the world that cares about the century is Japan.

Yeah, I think that there's no way they bring out a super Lexus

and try to sell a vehicle that will cost more than a Lexus in North America.

Badges, the Toyota or badges, the century just not going to happen.

I just don't see how that could happen.

No, I agree with you.

I think I think this is like the Volkswagen Phaeton.

But where the Phaeton was weird,

because so the century has like heritage, the Phaeton didn't.

Right. Yeah. And we saw how that went.

It went very poorly and it also had weird engines

that nobody could pay to service.

I don't even think it's the engines thing.

I thought it was just the idea of paying like Audi money for a Volkswagen.

Right. So I just don't think you'll get people to.

I'm sure we'll see these cars show up like as as projects and stuff.

But I don't think we'll get an actual presence.

Alexis also showed off two weird LS branded vehicles.

One is called the LS van and the other one is called the LS micro.

So if you remember correctly, the LS was a luxury sedan,

something that would kind of go toe to toe with the S class.

It seems like the last generation of the LS kind of like fell off.

It's a car that like Lexus never talks about.

And people do not.

It doesn't look the new S class, new seven series and even the A8

has has picked up the pace.

They they they were vulnerable for a while

when the LS could really keep up.

And now it is it is not at that level.

I think I think it's been 10 years since the LS was a threat.

Yeah, I think it's a great.

I think that's a good reference point.

So I guess Lexus has realized that the LS in its current form

is not particularly competitive or interesting.

It hasn't made a splash.

So they decided to show a concept which has six wheels and is a van.

Do you like that? Come on, Matt, you we this is like told me

so many times when we've reviewed the I wish this van had two more wheels.

Yes, you told me when we've driven the Kia Carnival in particular,

which is a vehicle that has promoted the use of a of its interior

for more than just burying kids around, but for like luxury purposes.

So it would have lean back seats and, you know,

they they kind of like come back together like a love seat.

Look, I'm going to tell you what I honestly think of this van.

This looks like the kind of thing you would buy to store your hot wheels in

like like a big like it rolls around and then folds open.

Yeah, exactly.

And you can like stick them in and then fold it closed.

It's a little transporter. That is a cool thing.

I think this van is super cool. We'll never see it.

Why would the weird part is why it requires six wheels?

Same. The weird part is why not eight if six?

Like what's holding you back, right?

And also if you look at the wheels,

the front wheel is definitely like 10 inches bigger

than the two rear wheels. What is up with that?

That is true. I didn't notice that, which means maybe it's the same amount

of contact patch like it's so strange.

So I don't think this thing will come to market. I don't think it's.

I mean, maybe they'll build it, Lexus. I want you to build it.

If you build it again, they're not going to sell it in North America.

I would be your number one.

One is not is not a market.

This would be changed to the unnamed Lexus LS van sport concept podcast.

OK, what about the LS micro concept?

No, I just said nothing.

Well, thank you.

Basically a motorcycle.

Basically, they mush the van.

They put the van in a in a vice and they mush it and it got taller.

Yes, it did. It was a square wheels up front, Sammy.

No, they're just in a weird square in case, like in case area.

I can tell you what I don't like about it.

That front door, the front door, like a BMW Isetta.

If I'm going to crash, I'm dead.

Like the door is like literally in front of you.

And it looks like it's made of glass.

It does look like it's made of glass.

That feels like a bad idea.

I said, it's so nice.

I'm sorry. That's what made the Isetta so cool.

The Isetta was great until you died when a bicycle hit you head on.

That's not my problem.

Bicycle.

Basically, my God, you know, how many times you get caught behind

like a dump truck and like it just hits a pothole and a pebble comes flying.

I had to get I had to get the windshield fixed on the Pathfinder this week.

And so I want to tell you that I fed her this thing.

This looks like the chair.

The front of the looking at it head on this LS micro micro micro micro micro.

It looks like the chair that Schwarzenegger sits in in total recall

when they put the or they put that device in him.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it doesn't look that hospitable night, right?

Yeah, or also and or the chair that Jean-Claude Van Damme is strapped into

in Timecop where they launch it at the wall.

Does anyone remember that in Timecop, the way the way you travel

through time was they put you in a catapult like at a theme park

and launched you at a concrete wall and you had better hope that worked

because if it didn't work, you're not traveling through time.

Your traveling days are done.

The weird thing about the movie Timecop.

Oh, there's a lot of weird.

Yeah, no, but in particular, it feels like either you've seen it

and you're begging for someone else to have seen it so you could talk to them

about it or you're just constantly search like people think you're insane.

There's no such movie.

I feel like I will talk to anyone about Timecop.

No, regardless.

Scare them regardless of of where they stand on the Timecop,

the Timecop spectrum.

So Sammy, I want to I want to skip all of these things and talk straight

about the Lexus Sport concept, which is basically the next generation LFA.

And I can't wait for this thing to happen

because the LFA was a very special vehicle.

But do you think it will look as dramatic as it does in these photos?

The photos I sent you, I don't even think have them.

Let me find this.

It's all right. I've seen it.

It's a beautiful looking car, man.

I'm so into this, but I can't wait.

It'll it'll it'll be brilliant.

It'll be excellent.

It's my favorite thing that I've ever seen.

Well, I think Lexus design when it when it goes like unhinged like this

in the Lexus Department is and we've seen the LS the LC 500.

It's perfect.

I think they've really killed it with their designs.

So we've got to wrap things up this week.

Oh, yeah. OK.

Listener question that came in.

Yeah. Long time listener want to send a shout out.

Thank you so much.

We actually chat on Instagram for a bit and I enjoy it.

We are we're the question is two questions this week.

Difference between all wheel drive and four wheel drive.

So basically, we're not going to get too deep into this

because it is one of those things where marketing has taken over

and really blurred the lines between the mechanics and the engineering

behind these types of traction systems in general.

However, an all wheel drive system is designed for all wheels to receive

power all the time, or at least they can receive power at any given time.

But they're also able to move in to spin independently of each other.

They don't have to be receiving.

They don't have to be spinning at the same speed.

Now, a four wheel drive system is designed to provide power

to all of the wheels at a specific ratio.

So you can lock a center differential, for example, or lock lock whatever

differential you want, the the the wheels are going to spin at the same speeds.

Why does this difference matter?

Well, a true four wheel drive system is not a system that you're able

to use on dry pavement, because when you go around a corner in dry pavement,

the inside wheels and the outside wheels spin at different rates.

A four wheel drive system that can damage it.

It's not intended to do that.

If you're on dirt, if you're on snow, you will get wheel spin,

which will allow you to compensate for the fact that it's not supposed to spin

at different rates. So that's OK.

You can the wheel you'll notice this on, especially on a low range

four wheel drive system, if you go around a corner on a surface

that is has a lot of traction, you'll get chatter.

Chatter, that's what I like to call it.

It's like a no, it's super noisy.

It's kind of like stuttery.

Yeah, it's the sound of gears doing something that gears don't want to be doing.

Yeah. On all wheel drive system, it doesn't matter.

When you go around that corner, it can adjust.

It's designed to go at different speeds.

The other the other big difference that you will see is that that low range factor.

It's very, very rare to have all wheel drive systems

advertising themselves as having low range.

It's like not unheard of, but it's typically it's a separate set

of gearing inside a transfer case that you have to manually access

or access using an actuator, like an electronic actuator.

For some vehicles, the line gets even blurrier.

You have like a lot of pickup trucks have something called automatic

four wheel drive.

This operates essentially as an all wheel drive system

where the rear wheels are receiving most of the power.

But when you encounter slip, it activates the front wheels and allows those to work.

It will also, in addition to that, have a traditional four wheel drive system.

You'll notice it'll say four wheel high or four wheel low.

When you're engaged in that type of of of traction

with with that type of labeling,

that indicates that you are not able to use it outside of a slippery situation,

whether you're off road, whether you're in snow or on ice or whatever.

So that's basically the big difference.

It's like four wheel drive.

You need to have some ability to slip the wheels.

All wheel drive doesn't matter.

You can use it on dry surface. You can use it on wet surface.

It's it's fine. It's it's a continual the wheels can spend at different speeds.

I know people that and I wonder,

can I just can I take like a quick moment here?

I have always been curious about offering

or vehicles that are really mainstream

that are like with all wheel drive and four wheel drive,

something like the Jeep Wrangler, which is known for its

for its reliability concerns.

And I think it's because a lot of people just keep their cards in four high

and mash up those those gears real hard.

Well, I mean, I don't know.

Four high is like technically more forgiving on a on a dry surface than four low.

Right. But like, it's not something that you want to be doing all the time.

It's because I've heard people in town

chattering their way through corn.

Yeah, you can't you can't treat four high as though it's all wheel drive.

Like, yeah, it's still there's still no situation

where you should engage four wheel drive in a system that's part time

where you don't need the traction, right?

And this is where, again, where we were talking about how blurry the lines can get

because there have been so many variations on these systems over the last like 50 years.

Really, you start to see consumer grade all wheel drive in like the 80s.

But even before that, there were companies that were experimenting with it.

And there are some systems where it's like, oh, yeah, four high is fine.

It's only going to engage this and that.

It's like you're really starting to get into the weeds of engineering at that point.

The second question and just to get to this quickly,

because this is this is an important question, but it has a very definitive answer.

In the event of an engine fire, should the hood be opened or closed?

They mentioned my track experience that I have been in four burning cars.

I think in my lifetime of those one was two of them were burning under the hood.

One was burning underneath the vehicle and one was burning underneath the vehicle.

But it was the floor of the vehicle that was burning

because there was no floor and the carpet was touching the exhaust and that was that was scary.

But I have been in a situation where I had a couple of engine fires

and what I remember doing and what you should never do.

I looked this up to make sure because I didn't want to give bad advice.

Fire departments will tell you not to open the hood.

And the reason is if you open the hood, you are theoretically giving the fire

a rush of air, a rush of oxygen.

It's feeding it.

It could flare up in your face and be a bad news.

Right. When I had my most recent engine fire, which was quite a long time ago,

probably 20 years, OK, I had I have a fire extinguisher in every vehicle I own

because I grew up in old car culture and a lot of old car shows

would not let you wouldn't allow you to be judged unless you had a fire

extinguisher on display. It was a safety thing such as became ingrained in me.

I took the fire extinguisher from my car and I emptied it through the grill

into the the engine bay as best I could.

I ran into the house where I was.

I grabbed another fire extinguisher and came out and did the same thing.

And at that point, I went underneath the car because it was a truck

and I aimed up through the bottom into the engine bay and along the fuel lines.

At that point, liquid fire started dripping down from the engine bay.

And I got a third fire extinguisher because, fortunately,

the house where I was had two fireplaces.

So there were fire extinguishers beside each ran outside.

I did it again. I didn't pop the hood.

Everything was fine. So that would be my recommendation.

If you're at a gas station and this happens,

you'll notice there were often fire extinguishers at gas stations.

So there they are available to you just to keep in mind.

It's an area where you might I have seen a few fires at gas stations.

I've also seen fires at gas stations where people just watched the car

burn to the ground without trying to intervene at all.

So don't do that.

But insurance will pay out.

Yeah, I don't know.

Like, anyway.

No, it'll cost more.

I mean, you might as well try.

Don't be a hero by popping the hood.

But like, definitely, that's not your fire extinguisher.

Just use it. It's there for a reason.

It's not a decoration.

So that's that's my answer to those questions.

Sam, do you have anything to add to the fire equation?

No, I've never been in a car fire.

Good. And my experience with fires

are usually contained to the kitchen.

And that's usually when something has gone horribly wrong.

But if you really enjoyed this week's episode,

I encourage you to check in with us next week.

I've got two cars to talk about.

So I'll be making up for last time this week.

Those will be the Nissan Kix and the Hyundai Kona.

Ben, what are you driving?

I'm driving the Lexus NX 350H F Sport 3.

F Sport 3.

OK, did I have to watch the F Sport 2 or F Sport 1?

No, there's a synopsis in the glove compartment.

So OK, I encourage everybody who's listening

to head on over to our website, unnamed, automotivepodcast.com,

mainly because there's a contact form there that you can fill out.

And we get all of your questions, all your feedback.

We love that. So go ahead and do that.

Additionally, you can reach out to us on social media.

You can find us on Instagram.

Ben is at Hunting Benjamin and I'm at Sammy underscore.

Huh, like you're laughing.

Thank you for listening, everybody.

Sorry, I spaced out there.

Thank you for listening.

See you later. Bye. Bye. See you.

Episode 426: 2026 Genesis Electrified GV70, Japan Mobility Show, Listener Questions

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