Although Hyundai has been selling the Porter for nearly half a century in Korea, the brand isn’t widely known for pickups. That started to change in 2021 when the cabover truck was joined by the Santa Cruz, a compact unibody pickup. More workhorses are on the way, one engineered with another automaker and the other an in-house effort.
A mid-size pickup developed by General Motors for Central and South America is currently in the pipeline. Separately, Hyundai is working on its own mid-size truck, with plans to launch it in North America before the end of the decade.
We’re now learning about an Australia-bound model, and the company’s local CEO is already building anticipation for the Ford Ranger rival. The unnamed truck will be an internal project with no GM involvement and will ride on a body-on-frame platform. While it’s too early to know whether it will share anything with the North American model, Hyundai Australia’s CEO is already hyping it up.
Speaking with Australian journalists at CarExpert and DriveDon Romano didn’t hold back, saying it’ll be “mind-blowing, it’s going to be great.” He also hinted that the ladder-frame truck won’t simply be a rebadged GM product or a Kia Tasman with a Hyundai logo:
Photo by: Christopher Smith / Motor1
‘We could easily take another platform and just go out there and rebadge it, and that’s just not acceptable, especially now.’
Power will come from “a different type of hybrid,” but “not necessarily a plug-in hybrid.” That’s likely a cryptic reference to a range-extending EV setup, where a gasoline engine acts solely as a generator. In such systems, the vehicle behaves like an EV since the internal combustion engine isn’t mechanically linked to the wheels. The ICE charges the battery, which then powers the electric motors that drive the wheels.
Hyundai recently committed to developing extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), joining brands like Volkswagen’s Scout Motors and Stellantis’ Ram. The first EREV will arrive in 2027, offering over 600 miles (966 kilometers) of combined range along with EV-like performance and refinement. Designed for large, heavy vehicles, this technology appears to be ideally suited for a mid-size truck.
But competition is heating up. Toyota just revealed the ninth-generation Hilux, and a wave of Chinese pickups is challenging established players. Romano believes Hyundai can stand out in the crowded segment by offering “technology that’s unique.”
The company hopes to secure a slice of the mid-size, body-on-frame pickup pie when its new truck arrives later this decade: “Yes, we’re late, but we’re gonna come on stronger.”
Sources:
CarExpert, Drive
