Photos of the Two-Seat Electric Genesis Mint Concept

Genesis thinks it's time to break the luxury-car mold, and it's doing so with a new concept car that has made its debut at the New York auto show. Called the Mint-the name comes from the car's bright matte Hunter Green paint-it's a two-seat, two-door electric city car that's a little hard to figure out.

At a preview event in New York City ahead of the Mint's unveiling, we got to get up close with the car and learn more about it from Genesis's executive vice president, Manfred Fitzgerald, and Hyundai's global head of design, SangYup Lee.

Fitzgerald says that the luxurious city car segment is "a white spot on the map for OEMs," one that the Mint looks to fill. It purposely doesn't fit into the typical model hierarchy; luxury in the automotive world has typically been about "size does matter," but Genesis wants to think differently. "We don't want 'Big car is expensive, small car is cheaper.' We want each car to have its own character," Lee explains.

The Mint was a collaboration between Genesis's American, German, and Korean design studios. Lee says even though it has a wide, sporty stance and a coupelike body, it wasn't created to be a performance car, but more of a design statement like the original Audi TT.

The interior is covered in Cognac leather and is even more forward-thinking in design than the exterior, having been designed like a space-constrained luxury apartment in a city.

It has a two-across bench seat (that could sit three, Lee admits), and both the bench and the entirety of the instrument panel are powered, angling towards the driver's door when it opens for easier ingress and egress.

Instrumentation is kept to a minimum, with a small screen mounted in the center of the steering wheel and three round touchscreen buttons on each side of the wheel, which Lee says were designed to be at a fingertip's reach.