The Genesis You Can’t Buy Won Design of the Year

The Genesis Magma GT Concept, a sports car the brand has not announced plans to build, was named Design of the Year in TopGear.com’s U.S. Car Awards on November 1. Genesis calls the car its first pure sports car design and the halo for its Magma performance line.

The concept has a low hood, a long sloping roofline, wide rear fenders and a boat-tail cabin, with front canards and Genesis’s G-Matrix aerodynamic shapes that the company says serve airflow and downforce as well as looks. Genesis’s familiar two-line lamp graphic defines the tail. The award is the concept’s second, after a Silver at the 2026 IDEA design awards announced in September.

Genesis announced the award from its North American headquarters in Fountain Valley, California. "Winning Design of the Year is a meaningful recognition of the vision behind the Magma GT Concept," said Tedros Mengiste, chief operating officer of Genesis Motor North America, who added that "as a brand halo, the Magma GT Concept helps guide Genesis’ long-term performance vision and showcases future possibilities for further growth of our racing program and product lineup."

TopGear associate editor Tom Ford said the design works through restraint. "It’s about what you leave out, rather than what you add in; the Tao of the edit," he said in the release, adding that the car feels more coherent than some concept cars and even some production cars.

The only Magma car a buyer can order today is the GV60 Magma, the 641-horsepower electric crossover that Genesis priced at $69,950 for the US. The name also covers Genesis Magma Racing, which is heading to the 6 Hours of Monza in Italy for the final round of its first FIA World Endurance Championship season with its GMR-001 Hypercar, according to an October 30 team release. Mengiste’s line about "further growth" of the product lineup is as close as Genesis has come to saying whether the GT will follow, and the release gives no specifications or production plans.

The HyundaiHQ Take

Design awards for concept cars are easy to collect and easy to forget, so the interesting part here is the wording from Genesis’s US chief operating officer, who tied the Magma GT to the product lineup rather than just the race team. Genesis now has a performance sub-brand, a Hypercar racing in the World Endurance Championship and an award-winning GT design, and it has one car to sell under that banner. A front-engine grand tourer to take on the Lexus LC would turn the Magma name into a real line, and an American design award is exactly the kind of signal Genesis’s US dealers will use to argue for one.