DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Hyundai reveals its HiLux fighter — sort of

After years of denials, Hyundai has revealed the first tangible evidence of its intention to enter the same market segment as Toyota's HiLux, one of Australia's top-selling vehicles.

Dubbed the Santa Cruz Crossover Truck Concept, Hyundai's dual-cab ute is a few years away from production, but will eventually give the ambitious Korean car-maker access to the last major sales segment in which it's not already represented in Australia.

Last year Australians bought almost 200,000 light commercial vehicles, accounting for almost 20 per cent of the new-vehicle market. The HiLux accounted for almost a quarter of that number to be the nation's third best selling vehicle behind the Corolla and Mazda3.

Hyundai, meantime, was the fourth best selling brand with more than 100,000 sales for the first time – less than 700 units behind Mazda and about 6000 shy of Holden – without a ute.

However, the Santa Cruz concept is not quite a HiLux, prioritising passenger comfort and parking manoeuvrability over towing capacity, payload and ground clearance.

Of course, Hyundai Motor Company Australia Chief Operating Officer John Elsworth hosed down talk of an imminent Hyundai entry into Australia's lucrative, high-volume LCV segment.

But he could not hide his enthusiasm for the Santa Cruz, for which he attended the Detroit show to see revealed.

"Hyundai Motor Company Australia is very interested in selling a utility vehicle to Australians and believes the brand's reputation for toughness and reliability will stand it in good stead if and when such a vehicle is brought to market.

"We have no doubt a tough, good-looking Hyundai ute will be popular with Australians. But this is a concept vehicle and we do not make decisions about which cars to bring to market -- those decisions are in the hands of our parent company in Korea.

"However we've made our enthusiasm for a ute very clear -- it surely has enormous potential -- and we look forward to seeing how things progress in the near future."

Hyundai Motor America says a production Santa Cruz "reflects a completely new interpretation of truck utility for a new generation of buyers, especially millennials, who represent the second-largest population of car buyers".

"The Santa Cruz crossover truck concept meets the unspoken needs of a growing Millennial lifestyle we call 'Urban Adventurers'", said Mark Dipko, director of corporate planning at Hyundai Motor America.

"This new crossover allows them all the expandable utility they need throughout their active week, from work-life professionalism, to social interests, to a whole variety of outdoor pursuits, without the typical compromises they have come to expect from the industry's current product offerings."

Other than a 140kW 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine and HTRAC all-wheel drive system, no firm details were provided for the Santa Cruz, which is believed to be based on the same LCV chassis that underpins the iMax and iLoad.

But to meet the needs of so-called urban adventurers, Hyundai has applied a bold design with a cascading, fan-like grille, an aggressively raked side profile, oversized wheels with centre-locking hubs and highly-contoured cargo bed forms.

The rear doors are rear-hinged to provide easy access to the rear seat, there are tie-down points on the wheel-arches, roof and bed rails, and a hard tonneau cover.

Perhaps most interestingly, there's an innovative tailgate extension that allows the cargo bed length to be expanded. The Santa Cruz's tray length is similar to that of a mid-size pick-up, says Hyundai.

"Some of the industry's past attempts to blend truck-bed flexibility with passenger-car attributes were limited because they didn't deliver the practical benefits the customer expected," said the company in a statement.

"Most tried to straddle the line by attracting traditional truck buyers with compromised products at a similar price point, failing to deliver any differentiating benefits.

"Santa Cruz, by design, isn't an alternative to a truck, so towing, payload and ground clearance were not primary goals. Rather, Santa Cruz is intended to attract CUV and sedan buyers who are seeking greater utility, without the compromises that traditional trucks often require."

Hyundai says its US research showed that not everyone who wants an open-bed vehicle is willing to accept the tradeoffs that come with it. It said evidence of this is that the pick-up's overall market share has declined by five per cent over the past decade, "with the biggest shift among young adults, reflecting a need for something that more closely matches these morphing lifestyles".

"In the past, small trucks accounted for half of pick-up sales, and they were particularly popular with younger buyers. Today, that same young truck market is almost non-existent, and millennials under 30 represent just seven percent of all pick-up purchases.

"Women, who buy more than half of all CUVs sold, now account for only 10 per cent of pick-up sales. Santa Cruz is intended to meet the customer needs that the current truck product offering is simply not fulfilling.

"Santa Cruz is for the growing population who sees and pursues the world differently, those who want all the traditional attributes of a small CUV, but need the day-to-day versatility of an open bed. It's the crossover truck that meets the unspoken needs of urban adventurers."

It's not clear yet where the production version would be built for Australia, given one of the reasons Hyundai has long cited for the absence of a ute in its showrooms is lack of production capacity.

However, even if it's built in a new plant recently announced for China, our version is unlikely to be produced there, say our sources.

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