The public’s response to the Santa Cruz crossover truck concept has apparently convinced Hyundai executives to continue considering building pickup trucks.
Park Byung-Cheol, a director at Hyundai’s R&D division, said the Santa Cruz crossover truck concept got “good response” at the Detroit Auto Show in January. However, he added that there were “hurdles” to the production, but didn’t go into details.
The executive also added that Hyundai has no current plans to build Tucson crossovers in the United States. Now this last part may appear unrelated to the pickup issue, but as a matter of fact it is. That’s because a production version of the Santa Cruz would most likely be based on the Tucson.
That means the truck should be build alongside the Tucson to make economic sense for the US market and, more importantly, to avoid the 25 percent Chicken Tax. But since the Tucson will not be built in the US, the case for the Santa Cruz looks hopeless.
But the fact remains that Hyundai has been considering a pickup truck for many years now, which probably means it will launch one at some point. Let’s just hope it will be similar to the Santa Cruz study.
Story references: Reuters
Photo Renderings Copyright Carscoops / Josh Byrnes
PHOTO
