After confirmed that it’s headed for production, not much has been heard (or seen) about Hyundai’s upcoming pickup truck, the Santa Cruz. Until now.
Caught out in Hyundai’s production plant by website Motor1, this is the world’s first clear look at how the Korean automaker’s unibody pickup truck is shaping. It must be remembered that when it came out as a concept car, the HCD-15 Santa Cruz featured styling akin to the Tucson’s Fluidic Sculpture design. This time, the production version (due next year) sports the angular Parametric Design that made its debut in the Elantra.
It’s worth noting that while the concept truck was based on the Tucson, the production version will share its platform with the Santa Fe. With that, it’ll squarely be in the same market as the Honda Ridgeline, but will reportedly be must cheaper.
If Hyundai continues with the Santa Fe playbook, expect the production Santa Cruz to sport a choice of 4-cylinder engines—a 185-horsepower normally-aspirated 2.4-liter, or a 235-horspower turbocharged 2.0-liter.
Currently, only the North American market is confirmed to get the Santa Cruz, and for that, assembly will be done exclusively at its Alabama plant. That being said, if Hyundai decides to increase the Santa Cruz’s production footprint, say assemble it in South Korea, there’s a distinct possibility that they’ll be able to shoehorn the 200-horsepower 2.2-liter CRDi engine as well. Fingers crossed that that’ll happen because if it does, the Philippines will surely benefit.
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