Sabotage is a strong word
Perhaps it is too strong, but I did immediately follow that by saying that it hadn't happened. I was just saying "if" it happens, then it's "probably" time to pick another brand next time around. I should point out that for me, "the next time around" is likely to be several years at least, unless something massively goes wrong.
Lack of manual preconditioning far from a deal-breaker for me. If I was doing much more DC fast-charging and road-tripping longer distances - maybe. But like a large sector of the population, I charge at home where it is a non-factor, and if/when I would need - that is a low single-digit % of my needs.
I'm similar to you, I mostly charge at home and it is a non-factor. But I do road trip sometimes, and I've learned that without preconditioning, charging speeds are terrible even at moderate California temperatures of mid 50s to low 60s. Charging times can double or even more without preconditioning. A few months ago I actually charged twice in two days at the same 180kw Circle K station, temp was in the 50s both time. The first time I didn't use preconditioning, and charge speed peaked around 70kw. The second day I did use preconditioning and the charge speed zipped up to 180kw and stayed there for quite a while. Huge difference. Admittedly this has probably added up to only a couple of extra hours of charging time for me over 18 months, but when you're sitting there doing unnecessary waiting its frustrating, especially if there are non EV fans along for the trip. And I'm in California, this issue would be much more critical in places where it really gets cold.
The car definitely was/is heavily promoted as "charges from 10-80 in 18 minutes", but that is based on a preconditioning system that is super painful to use. For that matter, the car was sold as having a navigation system, but the system is beyond primitive compared to the one I had in my 2006 Toyota Prius, let alone modern cars. Fortunately the
CarPlay navigation is fantastic, kudos to both Apple and to the Genesis engineers for last years OTA update that added
CarPlay support for the HUD and cluster display.
But if you use the fantastic
CarPlay navigation, you don't get preconditioning, and an 18 minute charging stop could turn into a 40 minute stop. Maybe sabotage is too strong a word, but considering that an OTA update that includes manual preconditioning is clearly possible with minimal engineering spending, and in fact has been added to other EGMP vehicles, what is the word?
For me this is all probably theoretical. I kept my previous two cars for an average of 2 decades each. I probably won't keep the GV60 that long, or even live that long, but I'm unlikely to be in the market for a new car for at least a few years. So who knows what I'll be in the market for when I'm ready to buy.
At the LA Auto Show last year I spoke to a Genesis representative and he told me that the lack of preconditioning options was the #1 complaint they heard, and that he expected that issue to be addressed. Of course that was his personal statement, not an official pronouncement or promise. And maybe there will be an OTA update in the next few weeks that addresses this. If not, I guess I'll be bringing this up again at the Auto Show in November, because clearly that's a strategy that gets results
I definitely won't mention the word "sabotage" though, good call.
