Hyundai’s luxury Genesis brand is showing huge ambition and potential. It’s going racing, launching a performance brand, and rounding out the lineup with a stunner of a flagship SUV. However, it’s still a new brand to the luxury space, and its sales show that, for now, it’s still a niche player compared to establishment players including BMW and Mercedes. If Genesis keeps growing steadily as it has over the past few years, it will rival them in due time. And sales figures from the past month show positive signs for the automaker.
2026 Genesis GV80 CoupeIan Wright/CarBuzz/Valnet
A Standout Month For GV80 — No Hybrid Needed
Genesis breaks up the sales for the GV80 between the standard version and the “coupe” version, and the standard one, unsurprisingly, sells in much larger numbers. Funny enough, though, both models saw sales increases of 3% month-over-month for August, making it the best yet for the SUV. Genesis sold 2,350 examples of the regular one (70 more than in August 2025) and 361 of the fastback (11 more than in August 2025).
For the year so far, the conventional GV80 has reached 15,731 units, and the fastback 2,516. Those are increases of 7% and 1,003 units for the former, and 6% and 145 for the latter. This also leaves the GV80 comfortably in the second-place slot for Genesis sales behind the GV70, while the fastback is the fourth-bestseller.
2024 Genesis GV80 Black Front Angled ViewIan Wright/CarBuzz/Valnet
How Did The Rest Of The Genesis Models Do?
Only one other Genesis model had a month-over-month increase for August, and that was the G80 sedan. It got a sizable 17% boost from 322 sales for the month last year, to 376 this month. Ironically, the model is down slightly for the year by 4%.
As for sales decreases, the biggest one was the Electrified G80, but that’s simply because it was discontinued and so there are basically no new examples for sale anymore. For models that are still on sale, the Electrified GV70 saw the biggest percentage decrease month-over-month at 70%, and sales for the year are down 90%. The G90 flagship sedan and GV60 electric SUV were both down for the month and for the year, while the GV70 and G70 were down for the month, but are up for the year.
While Genesis would surely like to see all of its models growing in sales, if it had to choose ones to grow, it would be the GV80, GV70, and G70, as they are the three bestsellers for the brand. The GV70 is at the top, with 23,659 sales, marking a 13% increase over last year and making a big contribution to the brand’s overall 3% improvement over 2025.
2026 Genesis G70 Graphite Edition from the front three-quarter angleGenesis
CarBuzz Insights — Why This Matters
Genesis isn’t growing by leaps and bounds at the moment, but it’s growing steadily at a time when many automakers are shrinking. It also has a good chance to grow more quickly as it expands its offerings to other markets such as more performance and luxury. The full-size GV90 is also liable to be a much bigger success as a flagship than the G90 sedan. Even Lexus has had to drop its flagship sedan, showing that the market wants SUVs.
Genesis may be far from the sales of the German competition, but we have no doubt it won’t rest until it does match them.
