In August, Hyundai finally confirmed it would develop a pair of pickups with car giant General Motors, covering the compact and mid-size segments.
At the time, the South Korean carmaker said these would be developed for Central and South America, rather than being global products to be sold in ute-heavy markets such as South-East Asia and Oceania.
However, at its annual investor day overnight, Hyundai announced it is planning to produce a mid-sized pickup for North America by 2030, giving it a rival to the Toyota Tacoma, Chevrolet Colorado and Ford Ranger.
It’s understood this pickup will be developed by Hyundai rather than through its partnership with GM, while Car and Driver speculates it could share components with the Kia Tasman given both brands are under the same parent company.
According to the publication – which attended the investor presentation – the new mid-size pickup will be underpinned by a body-on-frame chassis, following the vast majority of competitors in the market. A related SUV will also be spawned from the same underpinnings.
Hyundai currently sells a ute in North America, though the Santa Cruz is based on the Santa Fe SUV, and doesn’t have the load-carrying capacity which a body-on-frame pickup could deliver.
Car and Driver reports comments made by Hyundai president and CEO José Muñoz suggest the ute could be powered by the petrol-hybrid system from the new Palisade SUV.
In the Palisade, a turbocharged 2.5-litre petrol engine is mated to two electric motors, producing a total of 245kW and 460Nm.
That would represent an increase in power compared to most of the turbo-diesel utes in Australia, however it’s wide of the typical 500Nm to 600Nm torque output expected from buyers.
As previously reported, Hyundai Australia has said its future ute won’t be diesel and has hinted at its offering being a “different ute” compared to what’s currently on sale, potentially leaving the door open for an offering with a traditional petrol-hybrid system.
Currently the only utes available with petrol power in Australia are the lifestyle-focused Jeep Gladiator, the base Toyota HiLux, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster, and the plug-in hybrid BYD Shark 6, GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV and Ford Ranger PHEV.
However, new Hyundai Australia CEO Don Romano has previously ruled out using the Kia Tasman as a starting point for its own ute.
“I mean, I can’t answer from an R&D perspective on a global basis because we are looking at utes on a global basis, so anything could change. But our position here in Australia is that we don’t need another diesel ute,” Romano said.
“But we do want Kia to be successful, because right now we see a decline in the total ute sales. And that could delay the development when people look at it and say, ‘is that really an important segment that we need to be in?’
“The answer is ‘yeah’ and we want to be able to point to our sister company to say, ‘look at the success that they’ve had’. Just having an open bed, you know, I think that’s important.
“But for us, we just don’t think it’s gonna be advised to come out with the diesel based on the Tasman body. So we want to look at different options, but that takes an extra year and it’s worth the time.”
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