Hyundai ute to deliver big sales growth

Hyundai Australia has ambitions to become an EV leader with a sub-$25,000 electric car set to lob before decade’s end, but expect plenty of new conventional-engined models to arrive before then – including a long-awaited one-tonne ute and a hard-core 4x4 off-roader.

The Korean car-maker is keeping its future product rollout under lock and key for now, however the brand has indicated to carsales it plans to introduce a handful significant new models that will boost sales from 2024.

These are almost certain to include competitors for the Toyota HiLux ute – Australia’s top-selling model – and the popular Toyota LandCruiser, which would gift the Korean brand a substantial spike in annual sales.

It is also working on the case for the smaller, more lifestyle-oriented Hyundai Santa Cruz dual-cab.

But it’s not looking to knock Toyota off its perch as market leader.

“In the long-term, as we look forward at our product portfolio and the various things we’ll be able to bring to market through 2024 and 2025, we’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to grow from where we are now, but knocking Toyota off would be a very big call,” said Hyundai Australia’s general manager of product planning, Andrew Tuitahi.

“And there might be a little gap in our product line-up, that would definitely prevent us from being able to explore that at all,” he told carsales, alluding to the dual-cab one-tonne ute, originally thought to be a 2023 proposition.

When asked about the development progress of the all-new pick-up – dubbed the Hyundai Tarlac and shown here in renders by artist Enoch Gonzales (via Behance.net) – Tuitahi said: “We’re not in a position to talk about a one-tonne pick-up at all at the moment.”

Quizzed over whether the project had been axed, Hyundai Australia’s general manager of corporate communications, Bill Thomas, interjected: “There’s all sorts of reasons behind it and we can’t talk about those either. But it’s just something that’s off-limits for us at the moment.

“It’s not for any particular reason. I wouldn’t be able to say one way or the other why, but there’s all sorts of different things in the background that are causing that.”

Over at Hyundai’s sister brand Kia, the Australian subsidiary’s chief operating officer Damien Meredith said last year that the ute program – which would be shared between the two brands – was still on track, with dual-cab and single-cab body styles in the mix.

“What we’ve requested is the full gambit of a ute – diesel and petrol,” Meredith added.

But since then, Australian executives have apparently been muzzled, refusing to talk about the project.

It’s understood the platform architecture for the new pick-up truck will also underpin a Toyota LandCruiser 300 rival that could be sold across mainstream global markets.

Also shown here in renders from Gonzales, the Hyundai Terracan (as some suggest it will be called) similarly remains a top-secret project.

“A rugged SUV or off-road truck falls into the same category of discussion as our one-tonne pick-up, so for now the biggest Hyundai you’ll see is a Palisade or a Staria,” Tuitahi said.

The ute has the potential to add as much as 20 per cent to Hyundai’s (and Kia’s) volume in Australia, solidifying its position as one of the top brands in the market with more than 100,000 new-vehicle sales a year.