Remember the Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck? Well, we have some new developments regarding this upcoming Hyundai model.
In a discussion among automotive journalists, a Hyundai representative mentioned that it would be based on the 2021 Hyundai Tucson instead of the Hyundai Santa Fe. This is of course contrary to the initial reports many automotive sites made on the Santa Cruz months ago.
The Tucson was recently revealed and it sure looks futuristic
If this is indeed true, the new Santa Cruz might be sharing a lot of characteristics with the new Hyundai Tucson. For starters, Hyundai’s first pickup truck model might be powered by the same engine options available to the crossover that it’s reportedly based on. There’s the Tucson’s 2.5-liter inline-4, and it might even also come with the 1.6-liter turbo hybrid powertrain.
Compare the Santa Cruz shell (left) with the 2021 Tucson (right)
Back in May 2020, we also revealed a spy shot of the “shell” of what we knew then as the “Santa Cruz pickup truck.” It was aggressively angular, but it definitely had a contemporary pickup truck look nailed down. Lately, it also seems that the recently released pictures of the new Tucson show similar character lines, especially on the car’s haunches.
Do note though that there aren’t any clear pictures of the Santa Cruz pickup truck shell to be found on the internet. So one cannot really confirm this new development based on comparing the Santa Cruz shell and the pictures of the new Tucson.
For us, however, it really makes sense to base the Santa Cruz pickup truck on the new Tucson. This is because Tucson has been revealed to be a tough crossover. During its testing in Europe, the new Tucson was able to handle the harsh cold weather of Sweden and the hot weather of southern Spain. It was also able to ford 300mm deep water, tow a trailer while ascending the roads in the Austrian Alps, and many other grueling tests.
It isn't just good looking. It's also quite tough
If Hyundai is indeed basing the Santa Cruz pickup truck on the Tucson, it might guarantee its ability to do typical truck things. And that is of course crucial for Hyundai’s first-ever pickup truck.
For more automotive news, keep reading here on Philkotse.com.
Know more about Hyundai Tucson 2024
The 2023 Hyundai Tucson is a five-seater compact crossover. Locally, this model has two variants. There’s the GLS+ 2.0 CRDi, and the 2.0 GLS AT. The CRDi model is diesel, while the other one is gasoline. They then have a price of Php 1,840,000 and Php 1,570,000 respectively.
Under the hood, the GLS+ CRDi variant uses a 2.0-liter turbodiesel engine that can make up to 183 horsepower and 416 Nm of torque. The GLS meanwhile gets a 2.0-liter gasoline mill that can churn out 153 horsepower and 192 Nm of torque.
For transmissions, the diesel variant uses an eight-speed automatic tranny. The gasoline version meanwhile uses a six-speed automatic tranny. Both variants are front-wheel-drive.
Size-wise, the new Tucson is 4,630mm long, 1,865mm wide, and 1,665mm in height. They also come with a wheelbase length of 2,755mm, and a ground clearance of 181mm.
Locally, the Hyundai Tucson competes against the likes of the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Chery Tiggo 5 Pro, Subaru Forester, Peugeot 3008, among others.
₱ 1,570,000 - ₱ 1,840,000
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