Suicide Doors Coming To A Genesis Luxury Vehicle Sooner Than You Think

The imposing Genesis Neolun Concept, showcased at the New York Auto Show, previews the brand’s future design direction and its intentions to enter the luxury electric three-row SUV space. It’s quite the looker, and it seems the dramatic suicide doors (or coach doors, if you prefer) may migrate to a production Genesis vehicle in the near future.

Speaking to The Drive, Genesis head of design SsangYup Lee said the premium brand hopes to implement this high-class design touch in upcoming vehicles. “We’ve been doing this study for the last five years and actually, we’re making huge progress. You see a lot of concept cars with these suicide doors, but you never see [them] make it to production. This is a challenge. We’re making big progress, and sooner or later, it will happen.”

Suicide doors add plenty of flair and panache and suit flagship vehicles like the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Lincoln Continental perfectly. However, engineering suicide doors to comply with modern safety standards is a costly and complex affair, which is why it isn’t common.

Plenty Of Design Challenges To Overcome

And it’s even more challenging to do so when the vehicle has no B-pillar. “Anybody can do a pillarless design, but what if a car rolls over? It has to be as strong as a car with a B-pillar. This is our challenge. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted. This is the vision,” remarked Lee.

Of course, there are ways around this. The quirky BMW i3 electric vehicle had suicide doors and no B-pillar. The automaker achieved an exceptionally strong passenger cell by using carbon fiber-reinforced plastic in the structure. At the time, this was highly advanced and met all safety requirements despite lacking a B-pillar.

Without the B-pillar, look at how big this space is,” said Lee to Motor1. Imagine when you pull up to a beautiful concert with a red carpet, staging door opens, or when you go to the beach, staging door opens, and you have the whole sea in front of you,” he added.

Genesis Has Already Patented An Innovative Suicide Door Design

Related

Genesis To Rival Rolls-Royce With Suicide Doors

The Korean automaker has come up with its own way of making pillarless suicide doors work smoothly.

This isn’t just some idea that Genesis will look into at a later date; the automaker filed a patent in 2023 for a sophisticated suicide door setup without a B-pillar.

The design that Genesis patented would use a unique hinge system comprised of rails, retaining grooves, and rotating claw levers. This unique setup would allow the rear and front doors to operate independently. Ford has also patented a unique suicide door concept but is yet to put it into production.

In the BMW i3, for example, the rear door cannot be opened or closed if the front door is closed. Perfecting this may take time, as Genesis will have to think about water- and air-tightness, seatbelt mounting points, and side airbag placement.

The GV80 is Genesis’ largest SUV for the time being, but the Neolun could arrive as a flagship model to rival the Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 and Range Rover SV. Adding pillarless suicide doors would undoubtedly give the Neolun a standout feature in its class – if you ignore the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, of course.