Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck set to go into production

Hyundai looks set to give the green light to its Santa Cruz pickup truck, which was originally unveiled as a concept at the Detroit motor show.

The truck is likely to get the go-ahead, chiefly at the pleading of Hyundai's US operations, in November for 2016 production. Although a little smaller, at least in its concept form, than the likes of the VW Amarok or Toyota HiLux, the production Santa Cruz would compete with those models in Europe.

Stephen Gleeson, managing director of Hyundai Ireland, also told The Irish Times: "We would definitely be interested in selling the Santa Cruz here, if and when it makes production in right-hand drive. Commercial vehicles and vans are about to become much more important to us again.

Business case

“We’re launching the H350 large van, a competitor to the

Mercedes Sprinter

and

Ford

Transit, in the middle of 2016, and there’ll be a replacement for the H1 van after that. The economy is certainly improving here now, and the building trade is getting back up and running, so it would be ideal.”

Car and Driver magazine in the US has reported that Hyundai Motor America chief executive Dave Zuchowski has managed to convince the boardroom in Korea to sign off on the pickup. More significantly, the business case for such a truck has become rather better as Hyundai starts to shift to building more SUVs and crossovers.

Both Hyundai and sister company Kia have been hit by falling sales and profits in the last year, as they both rely too much on saloons and hatchbacks, while the world has fallen apparently hopelessly in love with 4x4s.

Hyundai is expanding its SUV range now, with the ix35-replacing Tuscon coming early next year and a badge-engineered version of the Kia Soul, the Creta, being prepped for some markets.

A higher proportion of SUVs in the Hyundai lineup would make it easier to spin off the Santa Cruz, which would probably use the same platform as the Tuscon.

With the critical US market still hungry for pickups and the Chinese market apparently in retreat, a compact pickup could be just the pick-me-up that Hyundai needs.