After growing in sales every year since launching in Australia in 2019, Korean luxury brand Genesis finally hit a stumbling block last yr. Nonetheless, it’s expecting to show things around this yr.
Based on VFACTS figures, Genesis deliveries fell 26.9 per cent in 2024 in comparison with the yr 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 in need of its these brands in addition to 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 extend in 2025 in comparison with last yr.
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Genesis says it doesn’t share sales targets, and its global boss told Australian media the main focus is on its existing clientele.
“At Genesis we actually attempt to avoid setting sales goals. If we just set any figures, then we change into the slave of those,” said Genesis’ global CEO Mike Song.
“As an alternative, we actually need to construct the connection. We don’t sell cars, we just construct a relationship.
“So thus far, we successfully built over 5000 relationships with the Australian customers and every certainly one of these customers may be very vital to our business.
“We just had a gathering with [Mr Douglass] here, then as an alternative of bringing more recent customers… we do more on existing customers to thrill this 5000. Within the near-term that’s 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 promoting and product for Hyundai Motor Company Australia.
“I might say that from an area perspective, brand awareness might be the largest challenge that we’ve.
“We took some steps last yr to attempt to speed up some acknowledgement, awareness and consideration of the Genesis brand in Australia.
“We’ve seen some shifts on that front, and I believe we’ll proceed to see some shifts here throughout the course of this yr.
“We do have another brand marketing assets that will probably be going live throughout the course of 2025.”
Genesis’ local boss had a proof for why deliveries fell in 2024.
“2023 deliveries… was a results of coming out of a fairly difficult period with supply disruptions attributable to COVID, attributable to semiconductors, there have been massive logistical challenges throughout that period as well,” said Mr Douglass.
“Throughout that period, we were capable of construct a quite significant customer order bank, we just weren’t capable of deliver them inside that yr. So loads of those orders were being delivered throughout 2023.”
He blamed the drop in deliveries partly on a revitalisation of its retail network.
Briefly, some locations were temporarily out of commission, a loss keenly felt when Genesis has fewer than 10 retail locations nationwide.
“We also took the chance throughout that term to speculate in facility upgrades as well, so we didn’t really have an appropriate offline backup at that cut-off date and as whilst we were doing it,” said Mr Douglass.
“What we found is we had a high variety 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 really positive yr 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 outcomes which are reported. But we’re aware of it, obviously we grew year-on-year so again that’s a really positive sign for the brand and we’ve the expectation that we are going to grow this yr over last yr and all signs early on in January are very positive as well.”
He argued there’s “huge potential for Genesis to proceed to grow” in our market.
Fresh product is coming in the form of the updated Electrified GV70 and Electrified G80 throughout the first half of this yr and the facelifted GV60 within the third quarter, while early next yr will bring the primary vehicle from Genesis’ recent Magma high-performance line.
The brand currently sells vehicles under a fixed-price model through factory-owned showrooms, though this yr it plans to open one or two locations with “agency partners” which it won’t own.
This can allow it to potentially expand its geographic footprint in our market, with these recent locations offering the identical sales and aftersales experience as factory-owned stores.
While Genesis doesn’t allow haggling on its prices, it’s currently offering what it calls “deposit contribution” offers.
Until February 28, 2025, Genesis is offering $8000 off model yr 2025 (MY25) GV80 vehicles, $10,000 off MY25 GV80 Coupe vehicles, and $5000 off MY24 GV70 vehicles for those who buy through its Genesis Finance arm.
“The deposit contribution has resonated very well and it’s been quite successful for us since we’ve implemented it,” said Mr Douglass.
When asked whether these offers could possibly be prolonged to other models, he said: “It’s possible, absolutely.”
Genesis says it doesn’t have a glut of stock on the bottom, though Mr Douglass said the brand goals “to have a healthy mixture of vehicles on the bottom” for patrons who don’t need to wait two to 4 months for a built-to-order vehicle.
When asked whether the numerous discounts on, specifically, GV80 vehicles indicate buyer trepidation at its pricing, Mr Douglass said: “I believe we’re still thoroughly positioned in market.”
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
