Speaking to news agency Headlineauto, Mark Hall, the company's vice-president of marketing, said the previous Genesis was developed for the American and Korean markets, but the new model will have more of a global presence including in Europe, helped by the rising image of Korean cars.

However, Hall said that European sales will be in the hundreds rather than thousands and that the UK will get only the rear-wheel drive version and not the H-Trac all-wheel drive option due to the costs involved and the projected sales volumes.

He added that the engines on offer will make it of only limited interest to Europeans but there is talk of diesels being added later.

‘Our number one task is to make the brand image [in Europe] as good as the quality of our cars,’ he added. ‘According to Interbrand, we are now a brand worth $9bn, but in Europe we are still some way behind our competitors. Brand awareness has improved by 50% in the last two years but we need to do more, and we want a further 70% increase over the next three years.

‘We have a new wave of product launches on the way [22 by 2017], new models as well as replacements, and new technologies. There will be new B and C-segment cars before 2017 and we want to sell 100,000 in each as well as in the C-SUV segment.’