[Colin]

Details are starting to leak (or be made up) around the interweb. A recent Edmunds article says that "the Santa Cruz will share its vehicle architecture and many components with the front-wheel-drive Hyundai Tucson SUV."

"We would not be starting from scratch with this vehicle, that is fair to say," Scott Margason, Hyundai Motor America's director of product planning, told Edmunds in a recent interview.

He said there is "a lot of active work going on within the company in terms of whether we take that concept to production."

Apparently using the Tucson platform will save "one to two years" of development time.

Another bit of exciting info in the article is that a diesel engine is "under consideration." So at least we know its not not going to have a diesel engine.

Hyundai Santa Cruz Crossover Truck Edges Closer to Reality | Edmunds.com

 

[Monterey]

This is interesting. If they're building it off the current model, that points to a debut sooner rather than later.

 

[Colin]

Yea, this is the part of the article that most stood out to me:

Apparently using the Tucson platform will save "one to two years" of development time.

Who knows how long it will take still, but if we are saving one to two years, I think that we can be pretty happy about that.

 

[Santana]

This is interesting. If they're building it off the current model, that points to a debut sooner rather than later.

Well, we always knew it would be built off some platform, more than likely the tuscon. Plus if it's set to come out in a year or 2 or less, the current platform is what they'll be using.

 

[BahamaTodd]

It takes 4-5 years to develop a vehicle from scratch. We've pretty much known it would be on the Tucson platform. So as I've assumed before, with the time saved by using an existing platform, we won't see it for another 2 years at the least. They will also need time to build a new factory or expand a current one. That will also take a couple of years.

 

[Santana]

It takes 4-5 years to develop a vehicle from scratch. We've pretty much known it would be on the Tucson platform. So as I've assumed before, with the time saved by using an existing platform, we won't see it for another 2 years at the least. They will also need time to build a new factory or expand a current one. That will also take a couple of years.

Exactly.

From what i've noticed usually the public finds out about things at 1/2 way through the process at best.

 

[Colin]

It takes 4-5 years to develop a vehicle from scratch. We've pretty much known it would be on the Tucson platform. So as I've assumed before, with the time saved by using an existing platform, we won't see it for another 2 years at the least. They will also need time to build a new factory or expand a current one. That will also take a couple of years.

You think they will have to build an entire new factory? I would think that they would re-purpose an existing factory, likely one that is currently working on the Tucson.

 

[BahamaTodd]

You think they will have to build an entire new factory? I would think that they would re-purpose an existing factory, likely one that is currently working on the Tucson.

The SC has to be built in North America to avoid the chicken tax. Since its based on the Tucson (which is currently built in Korea), both will need to be built at the same location to make it viable. Hyundai's current US factories are already running at 150% capacity so they are desperately looking for more production capacity, especially since they want to add more CUVs and trucks. The only option is a new or significant expansion of a current North American factory. I have a feeling the announcement that is expected sometime this summer will be about this.

 

[Santana]

The SC has to be built in North America to avoid the chicken tax. Since its based on the Tucson (which is currently built in Korea), both will need to be built at the same location to make it viable. Hyundai's current US factories are already running at 150% capacity so they are desperately looking for more production capacity, especially since they want to add more CUVs and trucks. The only option is a new or significant expansion of a current North American factory. I have a feeling the announcement that is expected sometime this summer will be about this.

Fortunately with it being built here we can expect better build quality!
Or at least that's what i hope will happen.