Want a smidgen more proof that Hyundai will develop the Santa Cruz pickup concept? Study this 3-sentence write-up from Reuters, which quoted a firm executive in South Korea, and see if you can locate the “yes.”
We cannot, but soon after our longer interview with Hyundai USA’s vice president of product preparing, we’re not shocked that Hyundai’s home base noticed the “good response” soon after the pickup’s Detroit debut. The man quoted is Park Byung-cheol, an R&D director who also talked about “hurdles” to getting it to production.
Apart from trying to sell a small, unibody, Korean pickup in the Home of the Whopper, where full-size, body-on-frame, American pickups are virtually a religion, the biggest hurdle is Hyundai’s Alabama plant. At the moment, it is almost maxed out with about 400,000 Elantra and Sonata models per year, and since the Johnson-era chicken tax levies a 25-% tariff on all imported trucks and vans, it’s ’Bama or bust.
Reports in the Korean press, even so, recommend that Hyundai will develop a second Alabama plant for the Santa Fe—currently assembled at Kia’s Georgia factory alongside the Sorento and the Optima—and add the Tucson. The Santa Cruz could potentially sidle in alongside them. According to the Detroit Totally free Press, the new plant could assistance annual production of 300,000 autos by 2017. Practically nothing is confirmed.
With the Honda Ridgeline returning, there’s at least one manufacturer that thinks a smaller, unconventional pickup is viable in this market. Compared to the Ridgeline, Hyundai’s Santa Cruz is even smaller sized and much more unconventional. But who knows, perhaps it could succeed. It is not like anyone has ever attempted a diesel, front-wheel-drive pickup with a power-extendable bed prior to.
Hyundai Closer to Creating Santa Cruz Pickup, Taking into consideration Second Alabama Plant
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