Hyundai boss says “a real bloody ute” is coming – will it look like this?

How about a Palisade ute?

It's supremely unlikely that Hyundai's confirmed, upcoming ute would share its name with the Palisade, but we like it – so we've kept the badge in place on the tailgate.

And it's hard to deny the Palisade's big and bold face works on a ute. The Santa Fe- and Kona-based renderings below would surely do fine, but with the Palisade snout, this Hyundai ute could bring a lot of flair to the truck market.

Which do you prefer? Continue scrolling for more!

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March 1: New renderings imagine the confirmed Hyundai pick-up ute

Mike Stevens

While we wait for Hyundai to follow cheeky sister-brand Kia into rolling out some revealing spy photos of its anticipated ute – confirmed in 2019 by outspoken Hyundai Australia boss John Kett in the story below – we've had a crack at mocking up some potential designs.

In this update to our Hyundai ute confirmation story, we're presenting two potential takes on the new Ranger-rivalling Hyundai ute.

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First up is a design inspired by the Staria van, the incoming new-gen Kona SUV, the overseas facelifted Grandeur sedan, and the new Sonata facelift.

This look might be an unlikely outcome, given it presents as a streamlined sporting design when ute buyers are often looking for something more rugged. But, as a point of difference in a crowded market, a design along these lines could be just what the doctor ordered.

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For the second look, we've turned to the next-gen Santa Fe SUV.

That's a tricky one, because Hyundai hasn't even unveiled the new model, but our recent spy photos suggest our speculative Santa Fe renderings are fairly accurate.

So, we've tacked it onto this Hyundai ute – even though Hyundai is unlikely to offer a ute with a face identical to the new Santa Fe, but it might be something along these lines.

Both designs wear the same rear-end design, with 'pixel' tail lights inspired by the Staria and the Ioniq 5.

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What will Hyundai's ute be called?

We don't know, but for shits and giggles, we've dubbed the Hyundai ute Santa Claus – partly in reference to the Santa Fe SUV and the small Santa Cruz ute sold overseas, but also because, incredibly, Santa Claus is a real place in Indiana, USA.

Hey: it's a 'sleigh' that carries stuff, and it's the Christmas gift Hyundai Oz has been waiting for!

What do you think of the new look? Tell us in the comments below!

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When will the Hyundai ute be revealed?

That's a tough one to puzzle out, although we can likely look to Kia for some clues. The smaller of the two stablemate brands is already openly teasing its upcoming ute, by testing prototypes on public roads with the new Kia badge proudly displayed in the grille.

Speaking with Wheels Media around the same time as Hyundai boss John Kett gave Tim Robson some choice quotes (again, see below), Kia Australia COO said a 2022-23 launch for the K brand's ute "would be pretty close".

As we're now into 2023, and Kia's ute is being paraded for all to see, we can likely expect it to be unveiled in the coming months.

An Australian debut is therefore likely for either late 2023 – at the outside – or more likely sometime in 2024.

“Hopefully we’re first [to launch in Australia] but it doesn’t really matter. It'll be close," Meredith added, when asked about Hyundai's version of the ute.

Has Hyundai HQ muzzled its Australian execs?

Reports in June 2020 suggested the group's Korean headquarters had attempted to rein in the enthusiastic comments from its Australian leadership, but months later, global design boss SangYup Lee was telling us of his interest in delivering a ute for Australian buyers.

It seems a moot point now, however, given a decision has clearly been made somewhere to be more open to the free media coverage delivered with that Kia-badged ute prototype.

Did you say a six-cylinder Hyundai ute?

Maybe. Speaking with Dan Gardner at the Genesis GV80 first drive in Korea back in 2020, Albert Biermann – the company's now-retired-but-still-consulting R&D dynamo – offered a cryptic hint when talking about the new luxury SUV's straight-six diesel:

“This engine, we can have so many applications,” he said. “As you know, we also make commercial vehicles, so this engine will be out there for quite some time”.

A straight-six Staria is unlikely, so a direct rival to Ford's new six-cylinder Ranger could be part of Hyundai's ute strategy...

Get our latest stories at the links below (along with our renderings of the Kia ute), and keep scrolling for our earlier story confirming Hyundai's ute.

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The story to here

September 2019: Hyundai boss confirms “a real bloody ute” range is coming

Tim Robson

New Hyundai Australia COO John Kett has lit the fire under a long-awaited ute program, confirming that the company is working on a full range of one-tonne ute-based commercial vehicles for sale in Australia.

“What’s clear to us is that if we’re going to bring a ute out, it had better be a ute,” said Kett, a long-time stalwart of the car industry both here and overseas. “We’ve got past the first hurdle of what it needs to look like, but it needs to be functional as well. That’s the important part.

“We’re going down that pathway and we’re working towards it. We just have to make sure that when it arrives, it’s a bloody ute.”

Previous Hyundai pick-up concepts have been passed on smaller ‘unibody’ designs (below), but the one-tonner will be based on a ladder-frame chassis similar to that used under rivals like the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, with development costs to be shared with sister company (and staunch rival) Kia.

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The Santa Cruz ute concept is based on a car platform

Kett told WhichCar that Hyundai is currently working on a framework around the pick-up model mix.

“We’re looking at a range,” he confirmed. “When you cut up the ute market, you split it up between 4x4 and 4x2, who owns 4x2 and what powertrain goes with that [internally] and then 4x4 crew cab versus cab/chassis and so on… we want to be smart about it and that’s what we’re going through at the moment.

“Andrew [Tuatahi, Hyundai product manager] is having a lot of sleepless nights over this because we’re going fast down that road, but we do need to be smart about it, so that when people look at it, they say ‘yep, that’s it’.”

Tuatahi acknowledged that the plan - first floated in 2014 – is based on a vehicle that can deliver what Australians have come to expect from a ute in terms of towing capacity and payload, but other factors need to be worked through before more details can be confirmed.

“The fundamental request [to head office] hasn’t changed in terms of powertrains, drivelines, chassis set-up and abilities, relative to towing and off-road ability,” said Tuatahi. “That fundamental request has been consistent.

“There have been a few other things that have changed recently in terms of other market’s production capacity and facilities, and that’s the dynamic we’re working with at the moment, just to make sure that whatever is agreed to as a solution for the one-tonne pick-up works for us and the other target markets that the car will be developed for.”

WhichCar believes that this refers to Hyundai’s recently announced plans to build a new plant in Indonesia, which shares free trade status with Australia. One-tonne utes like the Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max are already strong sellers in the Asian region, while the existence of a free trade agreement will give Hyundai flexibility when it comes to pricing the ute for the Australian market.

It’s also possible that Hyundai might throw the pick-up into the US market, which is slowly developing an appetite for a one-tonne ute thanks to vehicles like the Ford Ranger.

The proposed new plant will cost more than $1 billion to build, and have an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles once finished.

Back to the future: 2023 links