The Hyundai HDC-15 Santa Cruz concept offered at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show has yet to be seen in production. That may change soon.
The 2020 model year is looming and it seems that Hyundai might miss one more year of being able to capture some of the midsize pickup truck madness that’s been brewing, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t close to ready to offer the Santa Cruz as a new model.
Coming to the Market “As Soon As Possible”
Whether it’s a quote from the Hyundai team or from the new Chief Design Officer Luc Donckeerwolke, the answer is the same. The new Santa Cruz will hit the market as soon as they have completed the production process. We’ve learned the design process is complete and it’s time to prepare it for production. The earliest time this truck could make an appearance on the market will likely be the 2021 model year, which would make sense and give the team time to show us a production model on the show circuits during the latter part of next year.
The Truck has developed for Hyundai
News has surfaced that the new Hyundai Santa Cruz has developed from the 2015 concept to offer us a four-door five-seat truck. This is a departure from the two-door concept that was shown on the stage in Detroit in 2015. This new truck is expected to ride on the same platform as the 2020 Tucson that we’ll see soon. This truck should share some of the mechanical items as the new Hyundai Tucson as well, making it one of the smallest trucks to enter the market in the midsize class.
The Hyundai Model Will Spawn a Kia Version
Once the Hyundai Santa Cruz makes its way to the market, the Kia brand will have a corresponding version that will likely offer its own personality and set of features. This is a similar approach to what GM does by having the same trucks with different features and qualities offered under the Chevrolet and GMC brands on a regular basis. These two additional models will be added to the midsize truck segment, which has been growing at a speedy rate to be a class that will have a lot more models than it had in the past.
Will the Hyundai and Kia pickup trucks be able to compete?
What will the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Kia variant compete against? These trucks are entering a class that’s currently occupied by the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, and Honda Ridgeline. Soon this class will also have the Ford Ranger and Jeep Gladiator models that have been recently revealed and are nearly ready to go on sale. It will be interesting to see if the Hyundai team can make this truck stand out and offer us the drive we want to experience with the qualities that we expect from Hyundai.
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