It looks like there’s going to be another midsize contender in the coming years as Hyundai prepares a new midsize truck.
Since 2021, Hyundai has been working to build some momentum in the small truck segment with its unibody Santa Cruz. Now, though, the company has far grander ambitions: Taking the fight to the Toyota Tacoma with a new, body-on-frame midsize truck by 2030.
That’s according to CEO José Muñoz, who confirmed the model at Hyundai’s Investor Day event. Beyond just bringing another midsize truck to the US market, the forthcoming platform could also bring along an SUV variant. So Hyundai could throw down another gauntlet against SUVs like the Toyota 4Runner as well, it seems.
Now, the news of a new Hyundai midsize pickup isn’t exactly new. Reports from back in March suggested the automaker could be working with General Motors to basically co-develop a new generation of the Chevy Colorado (of which we’d also see a Hyundai variant, of course). Fast forward several months, and that does not seem to be the case here. Instead, Hyundai will go it alone, developing a platform and the resulting truck and SUV in-house.
This upcoming Hyundai truck isn’t without some corporate company, either, as Kia recently launched the controversially styled — but turbo-diesel powered with a manual! — Tasman to some fanfare (including within the TFL office, as Tommy loves this truck…for some reason). Instead of a diesel under the Hyundai’s hood, Muñoz suggested the truck could see the new 2.5-liter turbocharged, 329-horsepower setup from the Palisade Hybrid SUV. Essentially, it’s the same powertrain you’d get in the Santa Cruz, but here you’ll get a couple electric motors for some extra oomph and better fuel economy.
Midsize + body-on-frame + hybrid = success?
If and when Hyundai actually readies this truck for prime time, it sounds like it would compete like-for-like with the Toyota Tacoma, which also just switched to a turbocharged four-cylinder powertrain arrangement, with or without the hybrid option. However, Toyota has an exceptionally strong hold on the market which it wrenched from the Big Three’s grasp over the decades — time that saw all the American players drop their small/midsize trucks, at least temporarily. Ford has since returned to the market with the Ranger, while GM took a small hiatus with the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon. FCA, for its part, returned to the midsize segment with the Jeep Gladiator.
Today, Toyota outsells any individual model in the American market by at least 3-to-1.
Depending on Hyundai’s launch window later this decade, it could also find more competition in the form of Ram’s conspicuously absent midsize truck. It’s supposed to bring its analog to the Ranger, Colorado/Canyon and Tacoma by 2027.
Potentially, Hyundai will have learned a lesson from the Santa Cruz launch. It took more than six years between the automaker’s concept and the production Santa Cruz. Back then, it didn’t have a Ford Maverick to compete against. But it wound up launching just a few months ahead of the Maverick instead…and today the sales volumes speak for themselves. So, will we see a midsize truck from Hyundai on this new body-on-frame platform with a possible hybrid powertrain well before 2030, or will we see it further down the road, when it may be too late?
Here’s what we do now know: The second half of the 2020s is looking far more interesting if you find yourself shopping in the midsize truck space.
