It appears that Hyundai’s upcoming pick-up truck will not follow a unibody chassis as suggested by the Santa Cruz Crossover Truck concept, but will instead ride on a ladder-frame platform.
“What’s clear to us is that if we’re going to bring an ute out, it had better be an ute. We’ve got past the first hurdle of what it needs to look like, but it needs to be functional as well. That’s the important part,” said John Kett, CEO of Hyundai Australia, in an interview with Which Car.
Kett added that the ladder-frame-based Hyundai pick-up will be in a segment that includes established nameplates like the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger.
Just like those models, Hyundai will prepare a wide range of variants for its pick-up, be it a 4×4 or 4×2 drivetrain as well as different cab layouts. “We’re looking at a range. When you cut up the ute market, you split it up between 4×4 and 4×2, who owns 4×2 and what powertrain goes with that, and then 4×4 crew cab versus cab/chassis and so on,” said Kett.
“We want to be smart about it and that’s what we’re going through at the moment. Andrew (Tuatahi, Hyundai product manager) is having a lot of sleepless nights over this because we’re going fast down that road, but we do need to be smart about it, so that when people look at it, they say ‘yep, that’s it’.”
GALLERY: Hyundai Santa Cruz Crossover Truck concept
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Pickups nowadays only for posers. why Hyundai even bothered with ladder-frame chassis?
Yes, Korean should learn the basic what serve the off road the best. It’s durability and low cost maintenance.
Landrover Defender 2019 replaced with unibody is a mistake – europeans are not happy now.
That is like saying rain is wet. NO DUHHH HYUNDAI!!!!
Proton arena next gen when?
Are you going to buy one, P2 salesman?
Yes the 2019 Defender is a big mistake by Land Rover. Hyundai are definitely doing it right.
Fyi genuine pickup trucks are Ram 1500, Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Toyota Tundra.
Hyundai and the rest are just making pseudo pickup truck also known as Sports Utility Lorry “SUL”
we need basic pickup truck double cab with price range rm80k – rm90k like 15 years ago. this is truck, not an urban car. if you want make a car with cargo, then make it ute. not truck with car cabin. we use this truck to transport heavy thing, enter the terrain road, go in to the jungle, not for lepak at kopitiam or transport bridal thing