Hyundai Pickup Trucks

With the pandemic still looming over our heads, 2021 was a pretty action-packed year for the auto industry. Sure, you had challenges, with automakers having to contend with issues like chip shortages, causing delays to consumers. But regardless, the show had to go on and we got some pretty cool cars making their debut, predominantly towards the latter half of 2021.

Let’s get one thing out of the way, 2021 really was also the year, when the market as a whole began to embrace EV’s and you could see several automakers both the legacy as well as EV startups bring several new models to market. Having said that, we did see some pretty cool ICE cars, also make their debut. Now there were several cars that made headlines this year, it was very difficult to pick out the best ones, but the cars on this list definitely stood out. Here’s our list of some of the most highly anticipated and important cars that were unveiled in 2021.

The folks at ‘The Fast Lane Truck’ conducted a drag race with not two, but five different pickup trucks. They had trucks across segments, starting from the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz, to the Nissan Frontier, the Toyota Tundra, and the Ford F-150 Raptor. This wasn’t a conventional race wherein you just had all five trucks go at it together. It was more of a gauntlet match wherein the winner of a race faced a new truck in the next round and the loser got eliminated. Sounds a little like Squid Game, doesn’t it?

There’s something to be said about a drag race between pickup trucks. Straight-line performance is not really the main selling point of these types of vehicles, but it still gives you an idea of how good the powertrains are at propelling them. Last time, Sam CarLegion had a RAM 1500 TRX vs Ford F150 ROUSH drag race, instore. This time, it’s the Honda Ridgeline vs the Hyundai Santa Cruz, and here’s what happened.

Hyundai has announced that the Santa Cruz pickup will go on sale at the end of July 2021. It will carry a price tag of $23,990 for the entry-level, FWD, SE model, while the range-topping limited trim with the 2.5-liter turbocharged engine and AWD will command a steep price of $39,720. In comparison, the new Ford Maverick starts out at just $19,995, and it’s coming from an automaker that knows a thing of two about trucks. It will even be offered with an FX4 package that will being with it more off-road capability, but with AWD vs. 4WD. The Santa Cruz will offer up to 275 horsepower, which isn’t bad for a smaller truck, which might be its strongest selling point as the range-topping Maverick will come with just 250 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque from a turbocharged, 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder. Click on the full-screen button on the slider above to read our dedicated webstory on the Hyundai Santa Cruz and what it brings to the table.

The Santa Cruz was one of the most anticipated vehicles from Hyundai for the better part of the last decade. The company unveiled it as a concept back in 2015 at the Detroit Motor Show and there were a lot of eyes on it since it was the automaker’s first pickup truck. Fast forward to 2021, the Santa Cruz is finally unveiled and the automaker has taken a different approach to it. Hyundai is referring to the Santa Cruz as a Sport Adventure Vehicle and not a pickup truck. We don’t know what the reason for this is, but the Korean automaker is coming across as a little defensive here and not as a niche-maker.

That said, the truck, err., SAV, does look pretty fancy and seems to be quite rugged and tough. The truck will be available from the summer of 2021. Also, doesn’t BMW also call the X7 an SAV? The ‘A’ there stands for ‘Activity’, I believe.

This is the all-new Hyundai Santa Cruz, a pickup we’ve been waiting for for six years now. So get ready, Ford Maverick, because the Koreans are out to get you and your fancy unibody construction.

Hyundai has a fairly long lineup of sedans and SUVs. With that covered, the company now plans to enter the pickup truck market, too. Back in 2015, Hyundai revealed the Santa Cruz truck concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Not a lot is known about the production model yet, but it will be based on the new Tucson SUV and will have a unibody construction. The truck has been spotted a few times over the years during its test runs, but we’re yet to see it without camouflage. The production is set to begin this year, and Hyundai could debut it sometime next year with deliveries starting soon after.

Hyundai has been away from the pickup truck market and there is no logical reason for it. However, the company unveiled a pickup truck concept called Santa Cruz in 2015 and it finally looked like the automaker has realized what it’s losing out on. People would’ve expected Hyundai to launch a full-fledged, hardcore truck to leave a strong impression, but the Santa Cruz is a unibody pickup truck, which means that the automaker is offering a jack-of-all-master-of-none kind of a truck. However, a rendering artist named Enoch Gabriel Gonzales has envisioned a truck which he calls Tarlac, and it falls in line with the company’s design philosophy. Looks neat, huh?

The Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup concept was unveiled in 2015 at the North American International Auto Show and, despite being well received, Hyundai has been on the fence about it - until now. After over four years, Hyundai has finally announced that it will be manufacturing the truck at its U.S. factory. Is it too late to the party, though?

Hyundai has decided to enter the pickup truck market to gain a bigger market share. Since sedans are heading towards extinction and the company has a fairly big portfolio of crossovers and SUVs, it made sense to enter this unknown territory. Although new players usually test the waters by playing it safe in terms of design philosophy and the kind of truck they’ll manufacture, Hyundai has decided to go full throttle.

The company’s Australian head has said that Hyundai will be launching a full range of commercial utes to take its share of the pie in the ever-growing segment, based on the Santa Cruz pickup concept Hyundai showcased at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. Can the automaker taste success in this segment?

Four years after dropping jaws on the floor of the North American International Auto Show, we learn the Hyundai Santa Cruz Concept could finally come to our lives in the next few years. Just don’t expect the production version to look anything like the concept that caused a ruckus in Detroit back in 2015. Time is the biggest culprit behind this shift. It’s been four years since Hyundai unveiled the Santa Cruz, and a lot has changed within Hyundai during that time. The company’s new decision-makers are taking a different approach from the regime that championed the concept’s production back then. It remains to be seen how the different stylistic approach affects the production model’s appeal, but that’s also just one of many questions that Hyundai needs to answer before the production pickup arrives.

Hyundai does not have a pickup in its lineup now, but that’s going to change soon now that a company executive has confirmed that a production model is currently under development. No timetable has been set in place, but the current schedule estimates that it could launch sometime in 2020. At the moment, the design of the production model is said to be finished, and the process of putting it into production is currently underway.

Hyundai showed off a very promising Santa Cruz compact pickup concept at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, but it never materialized into a production vehicle. Well, that could be about to change according to a recent report that says the concept could shift into production after all.

The Hyundai Santa Cruz is both a crossover and a pickup. Whether you believe that to be true, what’s important is that the concept will go into production this year. Or next year. Hyundai has been a little iffy on the timetable, but it’s pointing to the same conclusion. The company loves the Santa Cruz, and it has plans to build a production version. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.

While America was electing a new president on November 8, Hyundai debuted its new Creta STC pickup concept at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil. Basically a re-think of Hyundai’s Santa Cruz pickup concept, this truck takes the design idea to the next level, bringing a more youthful appearance aimed at attracting younger buyers in the South American region.

Not much is known about the concept except that its based on Hyundai’s two-row, five-passenger crossover called the Creta, but is larger in just about every dimension. The truck version is nearly a meter longer than the standard Creta, and is a few inches wider. Its wheelbase is also extended by nine inches.

The Creta STC Concept was developed by Hyundai’s design center in South Korea in conjunction with Hyundai Motor Brazil’s development team in order to create a highly targeted truck. The design direction points the Creta STC Concept at young Brazilians living in large urban areas who seek a mix of utility and sportiness.

The unibody pickup features many design elements that appear more production ready than the Santa Cruz Concept. Whether or not Hyundai will actually move forward with this design is yet to be seen. If it does get the green light, the chances of Hyundai green lighting the U.S.-spec Santa Cruz should become even higher.

Continue reading to learn more about the Hyundai Creta STC Concept.

Hyundai shocked the world when it debuted the Santa Cruz concept at the 2015 Detroit Auto show. The industry gabbed on whether the Korean automaker would make the leap into the U.S. midsize pickup truck market or whether the Santa Cruz was merely a design study. Well, it seems Hyundai will indeed build the crossover-based truck. At least that what Motor Trend is reporting.

“We have made the decision,” Motor Trend reports Dave Zuchowski saying. Zuchowski, Hyundai Motor America’s CEO, continued saying, “We have not made the announcement.” While that last bit is rather obvious at this point, the automaker is likely to break its silence at the Los Angeles this coming fall or Detroit Auto Shows, later next year.

The Santa Cruz is part of Hyundai’s apparent reallocation of space at its Montgomery, Alabama assembly plant to produce more crossovers. Whether the truck will actually take up residence in Montgomery is unknown, but Motor Trend’s report suggests the plant does have room for a fourth vehicle. There is also a Kia plant in Mexico with the capacity. There’s even the possibility of it being built in Korea since the Chicken Tax embargo is dying in 2021.

Regardless of where it’s built, the Santa Cruz is slotted to be a lifestyle truck that rivals the Honda Ridgeline for driving pleasure mixed with reasonable payload and towing capacities. Zuchowski is convinced most truck owners over buy, locking themselves into a truck that far exceeds their needs. The Santa Cruz is his answer to the problem.

It will come powered by a choice of a gasoline or turbodiesel engine with the option of an AWD or 4WD system. Pricing is expected to start around $25,000 and go on sale starting in Q4 of 2018 as a 2019 model.

Continue reading for more information.

The gates are open at the 2016 Chicago Auto Show, and with those pesky journalists finally out of the way, the public can now enjoy all the vehicular goodness that North America’s “largest” auto show can muster. Special editions, refreshes, and brand-new models all dropped cover this year, with crossovers and SUVs served up as the main course, and new sedans and sports cars added as a tasty side dish. Picking winners and losers here is not exactly easy, but hey, this isn’t some elementary school talent show. Time to be ruthless.

There were a few clear standouts for Best In Show right from the start, but cutthroat competition to fill the remaining slots quickly followed. Picking vehicles for Worst In Show was also pretty tricky, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

So, without further ado…

Continue reading for the Best and Worst In Show at CAS 2016.