2014 Hyundai Genesis first glimpse

Here are the first official shots of the next Hyundai Genesis, a long, cool drink of water that will chart the course for many larger Hyundai sedans to come.

“We want more premium luxury,” said Moon Sik Kwon, president of Hyundai R&D. “Genesis will lead the way.”

Details are not officially released yet, so, even though we just drove the thing all over Hyundai's Nam Yang proving ground here in Korea and have a definite opinion about it, we can't tell you whether or not it was a well-composed, powerfully quick, huge step up and over the first Genesis sedan.

All we can officially say is what was contained in the rambling release, a work of media so full of superlatives that it rivals the best home-market German releases from BMW and Mercedes in wordiness while saying almost nothing (a requirement of luxury sedan press releases, it seems). Hyundai is officially willing to admit that the new Genesis “…offers top-class driving and ride and handling performances.” So that's confirmed. We will be able to tell you what the hell they mean by that but you'll have to wait until Nov. 26 for our take on it all.

Hyundai
Hyundai revealed this rendering of the 2014 Genesis on Thursday.

The new Genesis will come with the same great engines as the previous model -- a 3.8-liter V6 and a 5.0-liter V8 -- with Hyundai's new HTRAC all wheel-drive system on one or the other or maybe both. Hyundai has not yet decided which powertrain configurations we'll get in the U.S.

Maybe you guessed this already but the “H” stands for “Hyundai” and the “TRAC” is a shortened form of the word “Traction.” Duh. HTRAC electronically controls torque split between the front and rear axles depending on road and driving conditions.

“Hyundai Motor's HTRAC system has secured best-in-class durability and driving performance through strict tests carried out in various locations worldwide, including the famed N

By Mark Vaughn