The Hyundai Santa Cruz has been spied by our photographers testing in the extreme cold. It’s the first glance we’ve had since a reader spotted the test mule at a gas station in Colorado last year.

The Santa Cruz is a light pick-up truck that’s being introduced to target a millennial buyer, as stated by the Korean automaker, back in 2019. Hyundai also confirmed that production of the compact-pickup-up would be manufactured at Hyundai’s Alabama plant. It will be built alongside the Santa Fe, and is believed to share the same platform as the popular SUV.

Read: 2021 Hyundai Santa Cruz Pickup Truck: Design, Powertrains & Everything Else We Know

The platform sharing means that buyers shouldn’t expect the Santa Cruz to offer up any serious load-carrying capacity as it will have a unibody construction. Instead, expect the Santa Cruz to aim at pinching sales away from Honda’s Ridgeline light pick-up.

In these spy images, we can see a grille design behind the camouflaging, which appears to share similarities with Hyundai’s upcoming Elantra. The positioning of the grill in relation to the lights takes after the Palisade rather than the Santa Fe — it features large bumper-integrated headlights flanking each side of the grille and a slimmer DRL/turn Signal arrangement up top.

See: Kia, Hyundai, And Genesis All Spied Testing EVs Together In The Snow

All four doors feature conventional handles, with an upswept waistline revealing a missing trim piece where the rear door window meets the body. Also visible is heavy lower-body cladding in plastic, and a sharkfin antenna.

It’s evident from these spy images that the Santa Cruz isn’t intended to be a large workhorse, with a short load tray and a stylized, almost flying-buttress-style section at the rear of the bed, likely helping aerodynamics.

The Santa Cruz has been in the works for some time, with a late 2021 or early 2022 reveal anticipated. It’s expected that prices will start below $30,000, undercutting the Honda Ridgeline’s $37,600 starting. While an all-wheel-drive variant is almost a foregone conclusion, no info has been revealed about whether a front-wheel powered version is on the cards.

Expect the Santa Cruz to feature the same engine and transmission options as the Santa Fe, which are 2.5-liter 4-cylinder lumps, with and without the assistance of a turbo, coupled to an eight-speed transmission.

New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge
New Spy Shots Of Hyundai’s First Pickup Truck Emerge

Pics by S. Baldauf/SB-Medien for CarScoops