Based on growing rumors of a Hyundai pickup truck, we dive head-first into evaluating the market for the new pickup as well as commissioned renderings of what this truck might look like.
The short story:
- The new truck will be based on the LWB Santa Fe, and using that vehicle's existing powertrain, the new truck will be competitive with the Tacoma and Frontier (at least based on their current offering)
- Hyundai can likely sell this vehicle worldwide, so it will be built in Korea...this is a key point as far as timing is concerned, as the "chicken tax" (a tariff on imported pickups) expires in 2018
- Hyundai isn't likely to try and build a truck for everyone - they're going to try and steal sales from 4-door trucks purchased for occasional hauling and towing.
If worldwide sales hit 40k units a year, our friends in the industry tell us Hyundai will have a winner...especially if they use a lot of the same parts in the new truck (which we've dubbed the "Santa Cruz") that they use in the Santa Fe.
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