
As with any concept, a production version isn't for sure until the company has gauged the public's reaction to their concept. Reactions to the Santa Cruz Concept was generally positive. As Mike O'Brien put it, "There's been tremendous global interest in the Santa Cruz."
This suggests that the Santa Cruz will make it to production in some form or another, but there are still a lot of questions as to exactly what form that production model could take.
The Santa Cruz Concept was described by O'Brien as "a smaller vehicle with open bed space in the back for bikes and kayaks and other recreational gear." That extra utility should appeal to young, urban customers who want a smaller vehicle that still can handle some of the adventuring that they'd like to do on the weekends.
The problem with the Santa Cruz Concept is that it has limited capabilities. It is not that capable of towing, hauling and going off-road. A production pickup would likely need to be able to hold its own in these areas to really compete and hold its head high among competitors. These were likely the "hurdles" that Park Byung-cheol, Hyundai's director of R&D, mentioned to Reuters when speaking about the chances of the Santa Cruz making it to production.
O'Brien says that the Santa Cruz will be different from other pickup-ish car models that have been tried in the past. Some of those other models were too expensive, or they made design compromises, like the Subaru Baja, which placed the rear axle in front of the bed. The Santa Cruz won't make such compromises and will keep the price reasonable.