Hyundai Pick-Up Truck Almost Ready To Launch

A Hyundai Motor Company executive spoke to reporters earlir this week and let them know that the feedback for the Santa Cruz pick-up truck has been so good that the company is now considering putting the pick-up truck into production.

A report from Reuters says that Hyundai R&D director Park Byung-cheol spoke about the possibility of the pickup going into production, but that he said some hurdles had to be crossed first. He did not go into detail as to what those may be.

The Santa Cruz concept was first revealed by Hyundai in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show.

The reception from consumers was mostly positive on social media, with reader at MLive voting in favor of the pickup going into production.

If Hyundai does decide to go ahead with a Santa Cruz or some other pickup model, they would have plenty of US consumers willing to give it a chance.

Vehicle sales in the US are up across the board, but it was truck sales that saw the biggest leap, rising 10% to 8.6 million units in 2014. SUV’s are included in that number, but pickups have always been hot sellers in the States.

• Related read: Hyundai pick-up spy shots

The top 3 vehicles sold in the US last year were all pickup trucks:

• The Ford F-Series
• Chevrolet Silverado
• Ram 1300-1500

Light truck sales were also brisk.

The Hyundai Santa Cruz pick-up truck concept looks totally unique, and comes equipped with a 2.0L turbo diesel engine that delivers 190 horsepower and 300 lb.-ft. of torque.

An added bonus is that is comfortably seats five.