Hyundai confirmed that the much awaited Hyundai Santa Cruz Pickup truck will hit showroom floors in 2020.
Back in 2015, Hyundai unveiled their Santa Cruz Crossover Truck concept where it sat unchanged for two years before Hyundai’s board gave it the green light to proceed in 2017. Now, according to Motor Trend earlier today (Apr. 19,2018) in a statement taken at the 2018 New York International Auto Show, Hyundai is preparing an onslaught of SUV’s that should bolster the company’s downward dip in sales. Among those SUV’s will be the Santa Cruz Pickup Truck. Here are five reasons why this pickup truck from Hyundai will sell like crazy.
1. Millenials.
In that 2015 press release, Hyundai identified that open-bed vehicle shoppers aren’t keen on spending their money on a driving experience typically found on ladder frame trucks.
There will always be a market for serious towing and hauling trucks from the likes of Ford, Chevrolet, and GM but there is also an opportunity to provide an open-bed vehicle utilizing a unibody frame.
As the number of millennial car buyers increase, so are their changing tastes. Enter the Santa Cruz Pickup truck.
2. The sales success of the Honda Ridgeline
When the Honda Ridgeline was first introduced in 2005, sales were lackluster at best with sales tapering off after its second year in production. After its redesign in model year 2017, sales of the Honda Ridgeline have been a key part of Honda’s success in the truck market (including their CR-V and Pilot.) 2018 has seen strong demand for the Ridgeline and Honda is poised to have another strong sales year for their unibody truck offering.
Honda has marketed their Ridgeline towards a more premium client, one whose already married, probably has a kid in college, and is making more than the average truck buyer.
Theirs’s an opportunity to introduce a unibody pickup at a lower cost to an untapped millennial market.
3. Cost effective design.
Since the Ridgeline is based off an existing platform, developmental costs were low.
Presumably, the Santa Cruz pickup will follow a similar rationale and I presume Hyundai will peg its larger Hyundai Santa Fe to share its underpinnings with this new pickup.
If Hyundai takes this approach, most of the growing pains for new vehicles should be almost non-exsistent.
4. A turbo diesel powertrain
While some traditional truck buyers might scoff at the idea of a truck from Hyundai, they can’t deny that the stats from Hyundai’s turbo diesel are impressive.
in Hyundai’s 2015 press release they’ve already slated a 2.0L turbo diesel with 190 HP and 300 lb-ft to provide power. Given a unibody truck’s lighter weight, this Hyundai Santa Fe Pickup truck might even best a Colorado/Canyon with its Duramax only getting 181 HP but 369 lb-ft.
It gets even better as the current 2.2 Turbo diesel from Hyundai in the Santa Fe for international markets makes a whopping 200 HP and 325 lb-ft. Who knows what improvements Hyundai will make to that engine in the coming years and if they’ll stuff it in this Santa Fe.
5. Value
Hyundai is known for providing its customers with the most bang for their buck. The Santa Fe Pickup truck will be no exception with a competitive price in the truck market.
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For those reasons above, I expect this 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe Pickup truck to do far better than journalists are predicting it will do.
