The head of Hyundai’s N division and performance boss of the Genesis luxury sub-brand has called out BMW and Mercedes-Benz for building hype around their vehicles by including “stupid” technology.
Albert Biermann, who headed up BMW’s M division before switching to the Korean automaker, told Drive that much of the complicated technology used in modern German vehicles was included simply for the sake of marketing.
“It’s all marketing, first of all. How many people really buy it later on? Much of this exists for media, to give a hype, to show the technology level. But how many people really buy it later on? If the tech will fail, you’re just adding the burden to the buyer, right?” Biermann said, according to the Australian publication.
Biermann, who made the comments to Drive at the recent launch of the Genesis G70 sedan, made an example using the G90 saloon, which competes against the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series in the United States.
“If I want to sell a G90 to a US customer, there are other OEMs that show their flagship car on the racetrack. The car in the luxury car segment, they show all the racetrack talent, but which 2,2-tonne luxury segment car will ever see the racetrack?
“We don’t do this kind of stuff. We work for the customer first of all, and not so much for the media. Of course, we do some stuff for the media, but first of all we do that stuff for the customer, that we think has reasonable value for the money,” he said.
“In our G90, you will not find any air suspension or active roll-bars or active whatever. A camera sensing the road, and this stuff? It’s stupid. We have a solid Hyundai steel platform, tonnes of high-strength steel – okay, it’s a little bit heavier than the other cars – and we have adjustable shock absorbers, and that’s it.
“We still outpace the S-Class in the double-lane-change in the Consumer Reports [test]. We almost beat the BMW, without all the fancy stuff,” Biermann added.
The German, who is based at Namyang in Korea, went on to claim that Hyundai’s testing procedure was also more rigorous than those of its Teutonic rivals.
“Our testing is much more intense. We have 30 000 km test driving in Namyang, with all the bad cobblestones and potholes you cannot imagine. We run our cars there for 30 000 km, and then on top of that we do 10 000 km at the Nürburgring.
“I don’t think anyone else is doing that anymore – maybe Porsche or Ferrari, but all the other guys they’ve stepped down from 10 000 km to 8 000 km or 5 000 km. And some, they do nothing anymore.”
