Lifestyle Reconn R2 vs Genesis GV60

What's the difference?

Once upon a time Queensland was the home of Aussie camper-trailer manufacturing and companies, such as Lifestyle Camper Trailers, were pumping out camper after camper to happy customers. But then came the imports and the price that people were willing to pay for the product dropped very quickly. Many local companies succumbed and just went out of business, others started importing their own and some innovated, developing new products; Lifestyle did two of the three. 

Today Lifestyle only builds light-weight, heavily off-road caravans which it calls Hypercampers and others would call a hybrid caravan, because it takes some elements of a camper-trailer and others of a caravan. It has four models, one of which is built in China in a factory the company part-owns. The other three, including the Reconn R2, which I’m testing, is built in Queensland.

Genesis has been in Australia for seven years, which in car industry terms is ancient (given the rapid pace of new arrivals). But the Hyundai-owned luxury brand has yet to make a real dent on challenging the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz and is now facing growing threat from the likes of Zeekr and Omoda-Jaecoo.

So it has opted for the tried and tested method of appealing to Australian customers - more performance. Australians have always had a soft spot for the likes of BMW M and Mercedes-AMG, so Genesis is hoping its new performance sub-brand, dubbed Magma, will help give it a sales boost as well as an image enhancement.

The Genesis GV60 Magma has just arrived in Australia and is the first member of what is planned to be an entire family of Magma halo vehicles. 

An electric performance small SUV is an unusual choice for a hero model, but there are some good reasons why this has potential and why it makes sense to be the first Magma offering. And both those reasons are largely the same, because the GV60 Magma is based on the same underpinnings and features and much the same powertrain as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and Ioniq 6 N. 

Just like Hyundai N has three core elements - Corner Rascal, Racetrack Capability and Everyday Sportcar - Genesis has created a trio of pillars for Magma. These are Design: Unspoken Dominance, Driving Sensation: Captivating Control and User Experience: Sharpened Immersion. 

Or to put it another way - slightly different, but fundamentally the same premise given the shared mechanical DNA. But Genesis has definitely put its own spin on it, so read on to find out if Magma is hot or not.