FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - The teaser campaign for Hyundai’s upcoming Santa Cruz bakkie continues with last week’s images now joined by a brief video created by the company’s design team in California.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a bakkie, but not like you know it. Like Ford’s upcoming Maverick, the new Hyundai is based around a unibody architecture and it appears to be closely related to the Tucson SUV. Hyundai says it is aimed at “urban adventure seekers that require daily urban flexibility coupled with the capability for frequent extra-urban adventures.”
“The 2022 Santa Cruz will break new ground within the SUV, Truck and Crossover segments by offering a new category of vehicle unlike anything else in the US market,” Hyundai says.
“Santa Cruz boasts bold yet sophisticated design, powerful and efficient powertrain options, a flexible open bed for gear, cutting-edge connectivity and a highly maneuverable all-wheel drive platform that is equally at home in urban and adventure-focused environments.”
Likely engine options, to be inherited from the Tucson, include a 1.6-litre turbopetrol with 130kW and a 2.4-litre normally aspirated unit that’s good for 140kW.
Given that the vehicle will be built in the US, it is unlikely that a right-hand drive version will be built, which of course would rule out any potential South African release.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t be getting a double cab from Korea. Hyundai’s South African and Australian divisions have previously hinted that a more traditional one-tonner is in the works, although details remain scarce.