It didn’t work for Mercedes-Benz, but Genesis has left the door open to building a luxury dual-cab ute.
Chief Creative Officer Luc Donkerwolke has made the surprise revelation that the South Korean brand carried out a design study on a dual-cab ute. While it didn’t end up going any further, Donkerwolke said the ute design will be revealed to the public in an upcoming magazine article.
READ MORE: Hyundai reveals major update on ute
“ Well if you wait until the January issue of Auto & Design you will see the pickup study we did a couple of years ago,” he told media, including Torquecafe. “We do a lot of things that we don’t show, but in this Auto & Design, I have decided to show some unseen projects, and we did consider pickup as well.”
Donkerwolke explained the main reason the company chose not to proceed with the ute was timing, which means he hasn’t ruled it out for the brand in the future.
“We have decided it was not the right time yet,” he said. “We have some homework to do. We still have to take care of the core business, the core segments. And who knows, maybe why not? I mean, I can only tell you as a car fanatic, I have a lot of sports cars in my barn. I have also a very wide pickup as well.
“So even if I’m considered as a very suspicious marginal in Europe for having a pickup with more than 600-horsepower. It just tells you that all horizons and especially mine would not limit itself for the normal segments. But this said, one thing at a time. We first do the homework, the main, and then we will look into what all the satellites we can plug in onto the brand.”
The timing of the revelation comes as Hyundai Australia speaks openly about adding a dual-cab ute to its line-up in the next three years. While Genesis has tried to maintain separate platforms between its models and the mainstream brand, the two do share some – namely the e-GMP electric vehicle architecture that sit beneath both the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Genesis GV60.
If Hyundai does indeed add a ute, particularly one with a range-extended electric powertrain, it would make it easier for Genesis to revisit its ute strategy.
Discussion about this post