Hyundai Motor Group vice chairman Chung Eui-sun has started the engine for the international debut of the G90 (EQ900 in Korea), the first vehicle under the firm’s newly created premium brand Genesis, as he flew to the U.S. on Tuesday.

The Korean automotive group official said he would introduce the G90 at the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, better known as the Detroit Auto Show, which is set to kick off on Jan. 11.

According to his itinerary, the group’s heir apparent will also appear Friday at the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas to look at the latest automotive technologies before joining the Detroit Auto Show next week.

It is his second straight visit to CES and at the 2016 consumer tech event, Kia Motors, Hyundai’s sister automaker, launched its driverless technology under the new sub-brand “Drive Wise.”

“But it is very obvious that Chung puts his top priority of his business trip to the U.S. on the soft landing of the G90 in the firm’s strategic market for the Genesis brand’s success,” an industry insider said.

Hyundai Motor said the company would run a separate booth for its new global luxury brand during the auto show. The 46-year-old vice chairman will make an English presentation on the Genesis brand and its flagship luxury sedan model G90.

The positive audience feedback for the first Genesis model is especially important as the automaker plans to roll out the G90 in the North American region in the second half of this year.

The U.S. market has been the biggest overseas market for Hyundai’s luxury sedan models like Equus and Genesis. Hyundai’s trials and errors in the U.S. luxury car segment over the past decade laid the foundation for the creation of the firm’s first premium brand Genesis last November, Chung said during the launch event held in Seoul.

“Chung is carrying out a critical mission to raise Hyundai’s presence in the global premium car market with the Genesis brand at a time when the automotive group is shifting gears toward the high-end market for higher margins,” said Kim Phil-soo, an automotive engineering professor at Daelim University College.

Hyundai Motor, once the most profitable automaker globally, was on a downward trend in profitability each quarter last year due to the strong Korean won currency as well as weak sales in China and other emerging markets.

With the outlook for business conditions worsening this year, “growth in the high-end market” was one of the two management key terms, along with the “green car initiative” that the 78-year-old group chairman stressed for growth in his New Year’s message Monday. 

In line with the chairman’s direction, the group vice chairman is expected to pour in his efforts to nurture the new Genesis brand into a global premium brand with an experienced international workforce and has been deeply involved in the hiring process, industry watchers said.

As for the latest hiring of global talents to build its premium brand, Hyundai Motor said last month that it hired Manfred Fitzgerald, a former brand and design director at Lamborghini, an Italian luxury sports carmaker, as senior vice president to lead the company’s global strategy for the Genesis brand.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)