If you have ever stepped out of a blisteringly quick EV and thought, “Why doesn’t this feel as exciting as the numbers say it is,” Genesis is clearly listening. The brand’s Magma performance sublabel is being built around that exact problem, and the first real proof is the upcoming GV60 Magma. On paper it is an electric crossover, but the experience is being tuned around the sensations of a screaming, naturally aspirated V6 that revs to 9000 rpm and “shifts” through an eight speed dual clutch gearbox, an emotional package inspired in part by the twin turbo V8 developed for Genesis’ Le Mans hypercar.

The idea is not to just toss in some videogame sound effects and call it a day. In the GV60 Magma, the motors, software, and artificial soundtrack are all linked so the car mimics real upshifts, power peaks, and downshifts in a way your inner ear and your backside can actually feel. Press on and the EV starts to act like a high strung race motor that lives for redline, with torque delivery and sound building together instead of that instant “all at once” hit many electric cars serve up. Genesis wants it to trick your brain, in the best possible way, into thinking you are working a traditional performance drivetrain hard rather than just leaning on silent thrust.

That is where the motorsport piece comes in. Magma is not just borrowing visual cues from its racing program, it is leaning on the same people who will be chasing trophies at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship. Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR 001 hypercar was revealed with a V8 hybrid powertrain aimed at WEC and IMSA competition, and development drivers like Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani have been giving feedback on how the road cars should feel and respond. Add in guidance from legendary racer Jacky Ickx, plus the watchful eye of Genesis chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke, and you start to see how seriously the brand is taking this “from circuit to street” story.

The GV60 Magma also gets a proper hardware makeover to back up the sensory theater. Genesis promises a clear step up in body control and steering response compared with the existing GV60 Performance model, helped by reworked damping that can tighten things down for a mountain road or relax enough to keep potholes from spoiling your commute. There is more attention paid to cabin refinement too, with active road noise cancellation, strategic insulation, and deeply adjustable seats meant to keep you fresh even when the car is pretending to be a race car. Crucially, if you wake up in a “leave me alone” mood, you can shut the sound experience off and cruise in near silence or dial it back so the simulated engine is just a distant layer rather than the main event.

Magma is not stopping at hot crossovers. The other half of this new performance identity lives in something much more exotic: the mid engine Magma GT supercar. Revealed as a concept with all the right supercar proportions and a set of butterfly doors, it previews a production model that is expected to pack a V8 behind the seats and serve as a halo for the brand’s motorsport ambitions. While Genesis has not spelled out every spec, executives have already hinted that the GT’s layout will mirror what works in competition, and they have been clear that this is not designed as a plug in hybrid. Think more pure, lightweight supercar with a focus on repeatable track performance rather than a numbers chasing gas electric showpiece.

Power to weight and authenticity are the watchwords. Current GT and prototype racing classes sit in the roughly 670 hp neighborhood, and Genesis’ GMR 001 hypercar has been developed with that arena in mind. Translating that kind of hardware and know how to a road going Magma GT means the engineers can benchmark real race stints instead of just a few headline grabbing launch control runs. For enthusiasts, that should mean a car that feels alive at ten tenths yet still carries the design cues and cabin polish you expect from a modern Genesis. The company clearly wants the GT to be the car that makes people stop dismissing it as “Hyundai’s luxury brand” and start mentioning it in the same breath as established European exotics.

Beyond full EVs and V8 supercars, Genesis is quietly laying the groundwork for a family of electrified powertrains that sit between those two extremes. The brand has already confirmed that extended range EVs are coming, using a combustion engine as a generator to feed the battery and deliver long range without constant fast charging. Early reports point to a GV70 based EREV around the middle of the decade, and the broader Hyundai group has signaled that EREVs will target serious range numbers with high performance motors. At the same time, Genesis has walked back its “EV only after 2025” plan and committed to hybrids on most new models, which opens the door for Magma tuned performance hybrids with direct race tech baked in.

What is maybe most intriguing in all this is that Genesis is not locking Magma into one recipe. Company planners keep stressing that there is “no prescriptive powertrain” for the subbrand, which is how you end up with a high revving, fake but convincing V6 soundtrack in an EV on one end and a snarling mid engine V8 on the other. If the GV60 Magma really is the hardest one to get right, as they claim, then the rest of the lineup could come together quickly. For now, the message is simple: Genesis wants performance cars that look the part, feel the part, and, yes, sound the part, whether they sip fuel or electrons. That is a promising place to start for a company that has clearly decided it wants a seat at the same table as the old performance guard.