2018 Hyundai Santa Cruz: News, Pricing and Release Date

In 1932, Ford Australia received a letter from the wife of a farmer asking for a vehicle that could get their family to church on Sundays and carry the couple's pigs to the market on Mondays. She grew tired of riding in her husband's truck and arriving to church fully saturated in pig excrement. At the time, bankers would only lend money to farmers to buy a farm truck, not a regular sedan. So the farmer and his wife were stuck with a truck. Eventually, the letter ended up working, as Ford later released the 1934 Ford Coupe Utility, a vehicle with a coupe shape and a separate, isolated bed for the piggies. And twenty-five years after that, GM took it to the next level by unveiling the 1959 Chevrolet El Camino, a model more widely known to have started the coupe-ute trend.

More Crossover Than Truck

And now Hyundai is set to bring back that popular style and give a twist with the all-new 2018 Hyundai Santa Cruz. Think of it as having the cabin of a crossover with the flexibility and utility of a pickup truck. Perfect for city slickers and urban adventurers alike. Who hasn't had a trip to Home Depot with four buddies at 9 o'clock on a Sunday evening needing a sheet of drywall.
Although the Santa Cruz is a concept, Hyundai does have plans to produce the model. Hyundai spent a great deal of time analyzing the lifestyles of Millennials, and the initial prototypes looks pretty awesome--regardless of demographics.

Easy to Drive and Park

One thing that jumps right out is the overall compactness of the Santa Cruz. It's not overpowering but still looks menacing. The goal was to provide a crossover truck with the footprint of a crossover to help make driving and parking easier in big cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
For those who plan on making the Santa Cruz a daily driver for both work and play, a lockable integrated tonneau cover keeps the toolbox and/or sports gear out of sight while also offering built-in drawers for smaller items.

Pricing and Release Date

So we're sure you're thinking that you've seen this before with the Chevy Avalanche and Honda Ridgeline. The difference is that this is more of a crossover than a truck. It will also be priced like one. Hyundai has not released official figures, but we're estimating that it will cost about $20k to start and have a release date of September 2017.

Pictured: 2018 Hyundai Santa Cruz (Source: Hyundai)