The Hyundai Santa Cruz will soon enter the North American market as a compact bakkie of sorts that aims to satisfy consumers with an adventurous persona. The new truck does this by merging SUV principals with traditional bakkie values. The concept for this however, was revealed back in 2015. Here’s why it took six years to reach a production-ready model.
As reported by Motor Trend, the brand’s executives knew it was entering a risky and highly competitive segment. Because of this, the Hyundai Santa Cruz was one of the most-researched vehicles it had ever created. Even though other manufacturers have failed in this segment, Hyundai is confident that this product can be a success.
Then CEO of Hyundai’s North American arm, Dave Zuchowski said it used the initial concept, which was on display at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, to gauge the reaction of the attendees. The result of this was overwhelmingly positive which prompted the brand to pursue the project.
With the possibility of the Santa Cruz, Hyundai justified building a production plant in the USA to produce the Tucson alongside it. Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan which is what delayed the production-ready model of this car. Zuchowski pushed for the idea of getting the Santa Cruz ready for a 2018 release and projected sales to be 50 000 to 70 000 units a year but in 2016 he was ousted as CEO and support for a North American-focused bakkie had left with him.
Sometime later, Hyundai reignited the idea with the intention to have the Santa Cruz in dealerships by 2020 but due to the complications in the market caused by the COVID-19 pandemic this was pushed out by another year.
From the point of being greenlit to it reaching production being so long, the Hyundai Santa Cruz had to go back to the drawing board so that it could fall in line with the manufacturer’s updated design philosophy. Although it would ride on the same platform as the Tucson, it needed to look more distinctive.
Further adding delay was the push for the Hyundai Santa Cruz to be produced in the USA but in 2015 the plant was already at capacity due to the high demand of the Tucson and Santa Fe.