Hyundai has been hinting at the arrival of the Santa Cruz for years, a compact pick-up that is now really about to be unveiled. The Hyundai Santa Cruz can already be seen in production form on a latest set of teaser plates.
Hyundai already showed the Santa Cruz Concept more than six years ago, a preview of a compact pick-up that has so far not reached the production stage. Indeed, to date. Hyundai conjures up a bunch of shadowy teaser plates from the top hat on which the compact pick-up by American standards can already be seen extensively. In addition, Hyundai hangs an official unveiling date on the Santa Cruz. On April 15, the brand will present the relatively unique car to the American public.
Hyundai Santa Cruz Concept (2015)
The Santa Cruz will be a pick-up that creates its own segment in the United States. However, the Hyundai Santa Cruz is actually bringing a segment back to the American market. The Santa Cruz will be a compact pick-up with a rare body, four doors and a relatively short loading platform. At the beginning of this decade, Subaru delivered the Baja in the United States, a lifestyle pickup based on the Outback, but with a short body. The Santa Cruz does not share its technical basis with a station wagon, but most likely it does with its SUV brother Tucson. It’s no surprise, either, that the Santa Cruz looks a lot like that SUV from the front. With its distinctive LED lighting incorporated into the radiator grille, the front provides a refreshing look at least on the Santa Cruz.
The Santa Cruz is broadly similar to the concept car that Hyundai presented in 2015, although a lot has changed in the design field over the years. The rising shoulder line has remained, but the final Santa Cruz just gets conventional rear doors and no small ones that hinge the other way around, as is usual with an ‘extended cab’ pick-up. The body of the actual Santa Cruz is interspersed with angular lines and the lighting at the rear is also different. Although they sit high on the back as on the study model, they continue around the corner and are filled with a T-shaped LED signature. The model name of the car can be read on the tailgate in cow letters.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz was designed by Hyundai’s North American design department and will soon roll off the production line in the American state of Alabama in the same factory in Montgomery where Hyundai also builds the Elantra. In 2019, Hyundai invested € 370 million in that production facility. We don’t expect the Santa Cruz on the market in the Netherlands.