Hyundai to kill off its only ute early in anticipation of something bigger - report

Hyundai is reportedly planning to end production of the Santa Cruz early due to sluggish sales of the lifestyle ute.

Sources have told Automotive News the original plan was for the ute to march off into the sunset during the second quarter of 2027, but the date is being moved forward. Additionally, the current production rate is being halved as Hyundai attempts to reduce the Santa Cruz’s high inventory levels.

If the report is correct, it will free up capacity at Hyundai’s Alabama factory to produce more of the closely related Tucson SUV.

In response, Hyundai USA told the trade publication the ute’s “life cycle plans remain unchanged”.

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Given lacklustre sales of the Santa Cruz, it won’t be replaced directly. Instead the company has confirmed it is working on a body-on-frame ute that will debut before 2030 in the US.

This ute will be developed in-house and will be a “mid-size” model that will take on the likes of the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier. The mid-size ute could also spawn a SUV spinoff to tackle the Toyota 4Runner.

It’s unclear if this new American ute will be the model to fulfill Hyundai Australia’s long-held desire for a body-on-frame ute.

Introduced in 2021, the Santa Cruz seemed like an excellent idea on paper: use the platform of a popular unibody SUV, extend the wheelbase, and tack on a tray.

It’s the same formula used by Ford to create the Maverick ute from the underpinnings of the Bronco Sport and Escape.

While the Maverick belied its name with trad-pickup truck styling, the Santa Cruz leant into its unibody origins with a non-conformist design that included flying buttresses and a much closer association to the Tucson it’s based on.

At its debut, also in 2021, the Maverick charged out the gate with a starting price just below US$20,000 for the base hybrid model.

Although the two utes now have starting prices just US$1605 apart, with the Maverick kicking off at US$28,145 and the Santa Cruz starting at US$29,750, sales of the Santa Cruz continue to lag well behind its Blue Oval competitor.

According to Good Car Bad Car, in 2025 the Maverick sold 155,051 units (down 1.5 per cent) to be the 19th most popular model in the US, while the Santa Cruz was down 25.2 per cent to just 23,962 sales in 141st spot.

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