Genesis ranks second for the US Initial Quality Study

Hyundai Motor Group’s three brands ranked within top 10 in the JD Power’s Initial Quality Study (IQS) released on Wednesday. According to the 2021 IQS, Kia, Genesis, and Hyundai ranked at sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively. The 2021 IQS measured the number of quality complaints filed by consumers who bought new automobiles in the US during the period from November 2020 to February 2021 in their first three months of ownership and translated the number of problems consumer report per every hundred vehicles into scores.

Kia, Genesis, and Hyundai scored 147, 148, and 149, respectively. The lower the score, the higher the quality satisfaction reflected. The number of survey items amounts to 223 in total.

The Ram, a full-size pickup truck brand produced by the U.S. automaker Stellantis, had a score of 128, placing No. 1. The Genesis brand ranked second in the survey of luxury nameplates only, the industry average of which was 181. Genesis placed first in the surveys that took place in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, but in the 2021 survey, it was overtaken by Lexus, No. 2 in the last year’s list, with a score of 144, which is 15 points lower than the score in the previous year.

Hyundai Motor Group’s Genesis G80, Hyundai Accent, Kia Soul, Kia K3, Kia Sportage, Kia Telluride, and Kia Carnival were awarded the highest quality rating in the JD Power’s survey of model-level awards, making it as the holder of the largest number of awards for global automakers.


Hyung-Seok Seo skytree08@donga.com