Genesis G80 facelift adds more luxury and sportiness

Genesis G80 facelift adds more luxury and sportiness

 

Not so long after Genesis uploaded the 2024 Electrified G80 to its U.S. website, the South Koreans put the refreshed internal combustion G80 sedan on the retail website in the home Korean market, giving us a heads up about what’s in the pipeline. The exterior changes get the sedan closer design-wise to its 2025 GV80 SUV siblings. The standard G80 adopts the SUVs dual mesh in the crest grille, above a redrawn lower intake that’s practically a continuous span instead of being broken into three sections. On the standard variant, the twin edges at the fender sit close together, their staggered placement creating the look of a splitter below. The LEDs headlamps in today’s G80 will give way to micro lens array (MLA) lighting used on the G90 sedan. 

There’s a new set of five-double-spoke 20-inch wheels for the regular version, an inch larger than the rims on the current G80. In back, today’s exhaust finishers emerging from the lower bumper have been thrown out. Instead of exhaust tips, a V-shaped motif filled with mesh lines the bottom of the rear bumper, the same design seen on the latest GV80. 

A new G80 Sports Package looks like it will take the place of the $8,850 Sport Prestige option on today’s car, or at least supplant some of the Sport Prestige’s options. The Sports Package sticks with single mesh in the crest grille, running the motif down to an even racier looking lower intake than found on the standard sedan. The dimpled, propeller-look wheels come with the kit, the same wheels that come with today’s Sport Prestige package but likely at least 20 inches if not 21. We haven’t seen an image of the rear on this car yet, so exhaust finishers could live on, as they do on the GV80 Coupe.

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Inside, it’s all GV80. The previous 12.4-inch and 14.5-inch infotainment screens merge into a single 27-inch OLED display. The dual dials on the center tunnel are now the crystal shifter and shiny integrated controller from the bigger brothers. 

Ten colors are expected on an exterior color palette that gains the new hue Brooklyn Brown, along with four colors for the interior. If engines carry over, that will mean a turbocharged 2.5-liter four cylinder making 300 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque, or a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter six-cylinder with 375 hp and 391 lb-ft, both shifting through an eight-speed gearbox and sending power to all four wheels. 

Since these could end up being 2025 models for our market, same as the SUVs, it’s hard to know when official details and pricing will drop.