Coach doors will be standard on production Genesis GV90: Donkerwolke

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Genesis this week revealed the Neolun concept that previews its incoming GV90 flagship electric large SUV which is expected to arrive in 2025 or 2026 – and the Neolun was sporting exotic coach doors.

This style of doors – which open from the centre of the vehicle which features no B-pillar – are common on concept cars but are extremely rare on production vehicles.

But in a shock move, Hyundai Motor Group and Genesis chief creative officer Luc Donkerwolke today confirmed to Chasing Cars and Australian media that the coach doors are going into production.

“The coach door is part of the [production GV90] project”, said Donkerwolke. “The goal was that if we did a B-pillarless car, it had to be safer to compensate for the perception of more fragility of the body. That was one of the constraints, to make sure it remained secure.”

The Neolun concept shows a near-finished exterior design for the GV90, which will offer a choice of two or three rows in production form – according to Hyundai Motor Group executive vice president of design SangYup Lee.

The GV90 utilises the ‘EM’ 800-volt derivative of Hyundai Group’s forthcoming IMA electric vehicle platform. It will feature dual-motor all-wheel drive and a battery pack in excess of 100kWh of usable capacity.

Just three vehicles on sale today have coach doors and all of them have the Spirit of Ecstasy on their bonnet: the Rolls-Royce Ghost, Rolls-Royce Phantom, and Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

In the United States market, the Lincoln Continental sedan was offered with optional coach doors latterly in 2020. Choosing coach doors inflated the Continental’s price from about AUD$108,000 to about $177,000 – a 63 percent jump.

Perhaps Genesis will opt for a similar course, with regular variants of the GV90 fitted with conventional doors and a super-luxury four-seat flagship fitted with the coach door solution.

But Donkerwolke shot down suggestions that the GV90 should be watered down to be more affordable, reaffirming the marque’s view that the model should be a true flagship.

“A [regular] three row – everybody can do it”, he said. “There is nothing to prove there. We can do more than that.”

Engineering coach doors is supremely expensive due to the strengthening required to overcome the compromise to vehicle rigidity caused by removing the conventional B-pillar that separates the first row from the second.

Donkerwolke agreed with suggestions that green-lighting coach doors will make the GV90 considerably more expensive than rivals like the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, a full-size electric that retails from $194,900 before on-road costs.

Instead, the GV90 with coach doors would bridge the gap between the EQS and super-luxury SUVs like the Bentley Bentayga (from $378,600) and the Rolls-Royce Cullinan which employs a similar door design (from $705,000).