Genesis GV90 Brings Pillarless Doors, 25-Inch HUD & 657 HP to Luxury EV SUV Segment
The flagship electric SUV features rear-hinged coach doors, advanced safety tech & a 123.5-kWh battery for 310-mile range.
At a Glance
- Pillarless Neolun Arch Gate uses dual steel beams and reinforced roll cage for B-pillar crash safety.
- Dual electronic limited-slip differentials enable torque vectoring to all four wheels for handling.
- The 123.5-kWh battery charges from 10% to 80% in 22 minutes using 350-kW DC fast charging.
Genesis is taking another step up into the big leagues, with the introduction of the GV90, the company’s anticipated full-size flagship-class SUV that it previewed at the 2024 New York International Auto Show with the Neolun concept vehicle.
As promised by that concept, the GV90 Neolun will include pillarless, power-operated doors, with rear hinges for the rear doors. The base GV90 will employ conventional rear doors.
Another concept car technology that is coming to showrooms is the replacement of a conventional dashboard-mounted instrument cluster with Hyundai’s 25-inch head-up display that the company exhibited at CES in 2025.
“Today marks a landmark arrival for Genesis and for the future of luxury mobility,” said José Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company. “GV90 opens a new chapter for Genesis, building on our track record of bold innovation, elevated customer experiences, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Our new flagship SUV represents our vision for the future while embodying the very best of Genesis, staying true to the distinctly Korean values of hospitality and craftmanship that have shaped our journey.”
The rear coach doors and HUD are a couple dream-car technologies brought to life, but there is plenty of real-world hardware underneath that makes the GV90 work. Hyundai calls the GV90’s door section the Neolun Arch Gate. To create it, Genesis engineered a new structure that marries the doors to the vehicle body.
It preserves side-impact safety with high-strength dual steel beams integrated into the structure for rigidity. This architecture that joins the doors and body effectively disperses collision forces through what Genesis describes as a concealed-yet-robust roll cage. This employs a frame that is 50% thicker than conventional vehicles and reinforces it with integrated high-strength steel tubes and structural foam. The result is a structure that Genesis says will achieve crash safety performance equivalent to vehicles with conventional B-pillars.
The doors mounted within that structure also feature interesting design. The company developed a dual-motion hinge mechanism for the rear doors that lets them open and close independently so the rear doors don’t impede the front doors. It works by first sliding the rear door slightly outward, then smoothly rotating it open.
This application of power-opening doors seemingly explains the unnecessary use of the technology on the conventional doors of the Genesis G90 sedan. Rear-hinged coach doors are difficult to open and close manually from the back seat, so it makes sense the company would seek to gain some experience with self-opening technology on a car that doesn’t really depend on the system as much as the GV90 will.
The chassis also incorporates a slider structure in front of the battery that is designed to redirect components like the motor and subframe so they slide underneath the vehicle in a frontal collision to prevent direct impact to the battery.
A Thermal Runaway Protection (TRP) system helps prevent thermal propagation between cells, boosting battery safety. Genesis engineered the pack for effective heat dissipation, separating each battery cell to suppress the spread of heat to adjacent cells. The GV90 uses a cloud-based Battery Management System pre-diagnostic function to preemptively identify potential battery anomalies, warning the driver of any such problems.
Power-operated pillarless coach doors are a concept car staple, but make their production debut in the GV90. GENESIS
The GV90 features a panoramic skylight, so to provide protection in the event of a rollover crash, it incorporates a roof airbag that deploys to prevent occupant ejection and to minimize injuries caused by contact with the roof. The passenger seats feature a dual-depth airbag that deploys in two stages according to the occupants' posture, as well as airbags that are also incorporated into the seat cushions to prevent occupants from sliding beneath the seatbelt during a collision.
In addition, the GV90’s side curtain airbags extend to cover the third row, while the side airbags for the first and second rows and the driver's knee airbag is enlarged for better protection for all occupants.
GV90 rolls on the Hyundai Motor Group’s eMP platform variant that is exclusive to this vehicle, packing a 123.5-kilowatt-hour battery pack that is the largest in the company’s fleet. The company says that it uses high-density, high-output cells that enhance energy density and improve power and fast-charging performance.
Using a 350-kilowatt DC fast charger, Hyundai says that the battery charges from 10% to 80% in just 22 minutes. That performance is in line with our recent test of the Hyundai Ioniq 9. Genesis predicts that the GV90 will have a driving range of about 310 miles.
The GV90 has the Hyundai Group’s newest and most powerful electric motors, with a combined maximum output of 657 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque from the front and rear motors. These drive through Hyundai’s first dual electronic limited-slip differentials, (E-LSD), which distribute the motors’ powerful output. This allows torque vectoring to all four wheels during high-speed cornering for agile handling and manages wheelspin in slippery conditions.
Tackling the challenge of providing a smooth ride with the stiff springs necessary to bear the mass of the battery pack, the GV90s has a Multi-Chamber Air Suspension with adjustable stiffness. This provides a smooth ride and allows adjustable ride height. The dampers are Mono-tube Dual Valve Electronic Control Suspension (ECS) shock absorbers that are designed for a softer impact response and stiff body roll movement control.
Flagship-class vehicles are large by their nature, so the GV90 incorporates active Rear Wheel Steering (RWS) which allows the rear wheels to turn as much as 5 degrees to reduce the turning radius to that of a mid-size car for convenient U-turns and parking. The brakes employ 4-piston monobloc calipers with large-diameter pistons (front wheels) and high-capacity rotors for the braking performance required for a large, heavy SUV.
There is no visible instrument panel ahead of the driver, but the 24.6-inch infotainment display rises out of the dashboard when parked to provide entertainment. GENESIS
The cabin’s gee-whiz technology is headlined by the 25-inch HUD that projects the vehicle’s speed, navigation prompts, and ADAS function onto the windshield so the driver need never take their eyes off the road. For that, they can gawk at the GV90’s ginormous pop-up center OLED Cinematic Display.
While driving, this display retracts into the dashboard, exposing only a slice of the 24.6-inch screen. When parked, the screen rises to its full height for multimedia displays of video content. Whether people want to watch videos while parked in their car remains to be seen, but it could be a way to pass the 22-minute charging time during pit stops on road trips.