Hyundai is in the midst of a major push to remind consumers that it does, in fact, build plenty of “trucks”—and by trucks we of course mean crossovers. With a production mix skewed strongly toward cars, Hyundai publicly acknowledges that it isn’t as well set-up as it’d like to be for the automotive industry’s largely truck- and crossover-driven sales rebound. Even so, the company just rolled out an agreeable new Tucson, which joins the also eminently agreeable Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport crossovers. Will that be enough? Not according to Hyundai, from whom we learned that more so-called trucks are definitely in the works.
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The good news, at least for crossover-weary enthusiasts out there, is that one of Hyundai’s proposed truck models is, in fact, a truck. Well, it’s sort of a truck; Hyundai likes to call it a utility vehicle, but you know it as the Santa Cruz, the Subaru Brat–like, compact, diesel-powered, neo-pickup that captured a lot of attention at this past year’s Detroit auto show. According to Hyundai Motor America’s CEO, Dave Zuchowski, the U.S. Hyundai team expects the Santa Cruz to be approved by the Korean mother ship this November. The overwhelmingly positive public reaction to the Santa Cruz helped Hyundai America build the case, and the automaker’s shifting of several manufacturing facilities from building cars to building crossovers (and additional factories sprouting up globally) will help carve out the necessary production capacity.
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- Hyundai Creta Debuts in India. We Don’t Want It.
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- 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T AWD Tested: A Pleasant, Roomy Surprise
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- Hyundai Tucson Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Reviews, and More
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To expand Hyundai’s truck reach even beyond three core models and an oddball fourth model, Zuchowski reaffirmed that the automaker is looking at an entry to the booming compact-crossover segment. A compact crossover, or as Zuchowski describes it, a “B-segment SUV,” means something sized like the Nissan Juke, Mazda CX-3, Honda HR-V, Chevrolet Trax, and even the Kia Soul. The smallest Hyundai crossover, which would slot into the lineup below the Tucson, won’t necessarily take the form of the Creta SUV Hyundai just debuted for the Indian market. Zuchowski elaborates that the Creta is not “the right fit” for our market, and that a future small Hyundai crossover would need to be eye-catching and unique. “Edgier styling will be really important in that segment,” says Zuchowski, before adding “think [Nissan] Juke.” The Creta being none of those things, we’d expect Hyundai to spend some time at the drawing board before we see a smaller crossover here in 2017, round about the time the Santa Fe should arrive.
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1VJ46cI
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