This week’s Orange County International Auto Show might mark the final appearance of the Hyundai Santa Cruz as a concept vehicle and raise the curtain on a new era for the brand’s Fountain Valley-based U.S. operations.
Hyundai Motor America Inc. is hopeful that its parent, Hyundai Motor Co. in South Korea, will greenlight the crossover truck’s move to production come November, adding the first truck to its lineup of sedans and SUVs.
“We are confident that we can go ahead with it,” said Hyundai spokesperson Jim Trainor. “With any car, it’s got to be a strong business case. That’s being looked at right now here and by our parent company in Seoul, and we hope to have a decision soon. We’re optimistic.”
OC-Born
The Santa Cruz is an OC baby—it was developed at Hyundai Design North America in Irvine. The target audience for the crossover truck is mostly millennials looking for a vehicle “versatile enough to accommodate both passengers and gear, while being efficient enough to fit into their unique urban lifestyle,” according to the automaker.
The Santa Cruz features a 2-liter turbo diesel engine, seating for five, and an expandable bed that can be reconfigured for longer cargo, using a drawer-like sliding function. Its chassis size is similar to that of a crossover SUV, good for “grabbing a tight parking spot” and “high 30s” in estimated highway fuel economy.
“We were really pushing for something different in that segment,” said John Krsteski, senior design manager at Hyundai’s studio in Irvine. “We were trying to take a sort of tough-tech approach, because we often look at trucks that are on the road right now as being tough and capable, but at the same time we wanted to take ours and mix in the idea of technology.”
Warm Welcome
The Santa Cruz debuted in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and was more recently named Concept Truck of the Year by a specialty trade group that tracks proposed products.
Critics have been complimentary—Car and Driver Magazine called it a “rad-looking truck,” while USA Today said, “We can’t write enough about this interesting concept vehicle that combines SUV practicality on the front with a pickup truck rear.”
“One of the comments that came through was, ‘If Hyundai put this out today, I’d buy one,’” Krsteski said. “We were super excited because we all know show cars can be highly controversial and get mixed reviews. [Santa Cruz] was something that in our gut we all felt strongly about design-wise, and I know that from an overall opportunity standpoint, to be able to propose a car like this was something we’ve wanted to do for a while.”
The excitement also got the attention of Hyundai Chief Executive David Zuchowski, who was in Detroit with Krsteski and company spokesperson Trainor for the show.
“We kind of raised our eyebrows and said, ‘We may have something here,” Trainor said.
Timing
Hyundai’s timing may be right, too. U.S. auto dealers have sold 13.1 million vehicles through September, a 5% increase compared with the same period last year, according to New Jersey-based market researcher Autodata Corp. Overall light truck sales, totaling 7.1 million, are leading the field in terms of year-to-year gains, up 11.7% through September. That compared with 2.1% for cars, with 5.9 million vehicles sold to date.
Hyundai, like a lot of automakers whose U.S. offerings consist mostly of sedans and compact vehicles, is doing fine—it’s up 3.7% so far this year with 557,458 vehicles sold.
“But the market is so hot in the U.S. right now for trucks and SUVs that if you do not have a large lineup of those it’s hard to grow the sales as the overall market,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, adding that he’s expecting to hear about Santa Cruz going to production “relatively soon.”
“They got a positive reaction and truthfully, every day that they don’t have a truck, they are losing on potential sales,” he said. “The people who run Hyundai back in Korea are very aggressive and want to at least maintain the pace if not outpace the market in the U.S., and they’ve struggled with that. And I know they’re considering other options to help them grow sales.”
OC Design Scene
Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc.—a fellow subsidiary of Hyundai Motor America under the banner of Hyundai Motor Group in Seoul—also has a design center here.
Hyundai Motor Group President Peter Schreyer is head of global design for both Kia and Hyundai, but the two design teams work independently.
“We definitely don’t want to cross over too much,” Krsteski said. “Kia has their lineup and design language and what they try to do, and we want to protect and continue to evolve what we are doing, as well.”
Other notable cars with OC-based roots set to be shown at the Anaheim Convention Center for the auto show include Toyota Motor Corp.’s 2016 models of the Avalon, Camry, Tundra and Tacoma, as well as the Toyota FT-1 concept sports vehicle—all developed or refined at Calty Design Research Inc. in Newport Beach.
Calty’s notable creations include the FJ Cruiser, which Toyota fast-tracked through production based on reaction it received at the Detroit auto show, according to the design center’s president, Kevin Hunter.
“It wasn’t even on the company’s mind,” Hunter said. “The purpose of an auto show is, ‘Let’s take an idea and throw it out there and see how the public’s reacting to it.’ If there is strong interest in that car from the public, we try to listen to that and look at what’s going on and see if we can make a business case.”
Mazda North American Operations plans to showcase its 2016 MX-5 Miata, a roadster developed at its Mazda USA Design Center in Irvine.
Ford Motor Co., which will have its popular F-150 truck available for test drives at the OC auto show, operates the Ford Advanced Design Studio in Irvine.
