Yes, Hyundai is going to build a pickup truck

We are guessing the production Santa Cruz will be based on the Santa Fe.

Hyundai announced that starting in 2021 its Santa Cruz pickup will be built at the company’s U.S. plant in Montgomery, Alabama. Hyundai is spending $410 million to expand the plant. The Santa Cruz joins Hyundai’s Santa Fe, Sonata and Elantra at the plant.

The Santa Cruz was introduced in concept form at the 2015 Detroit show, and we started hearing rumblings about a production version almost immediately. Then last July, Hyundai Motor America product VP Mike O’Brien said such a vehicle would create “a whole new class of buyers” for the brand. While O’Brien remained cagey about confirming it for production, we figured it was a natural competitor to, say, Honda’s Ridgeline.

Hyundai hasn’t shown the production version yet, though since it’s going to be built at the Santa Fe’s plant, it likely is based on that crossover. Hyundai says the Santa Cruz, probably a 2022 model, is adding 1,200 new direct and indirect jobs, and that the $410 million is going to be spent on things such as enlarging the stamping, welding and parts-processing areas.

Hyundai might well have made this announcement when it did hoping to get ahead of next week’s LA show news onslaught. We’ll be there and hope to uncover many more Santa Cruz details. Maybe Hyundai is even going to surprise us and spring a production version, so stay tuned.

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