The Hyundai Santa Cruz is forbidden fruit in the Philippines. But despite being an exclusive model for North America, the compact pickup has a bit of buzz in the country. After all, we love these haulers.
It made its world premiere in 2021. Since then, it helped popularize the compact car-based pickup in the US with the Ford Maverick being the lone competitor. But three years in the market, Hyundai reckons it’s time for a bit of an update.
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The new Hyundai Santa Cruz will soon make its debut at the New York International Auto Show on March 27. It will be shown alongside the US specification of the facelifted Tucson. Given that the Tucson and Santa Cruz are closely related, it only makes sense that the latter benefits from the enhancements made to its crossover counterpart.
There are no full photos of the small pickup just yet. For now, all Hyundai is showing is a sketch and a (very) close up photo of the new model. The drawing shows a new tailgate design for the truck, along with redesigned lower cladding. Of course, there will be a few more changes to the final product, but we can expect these changes at the very least.
As for the second teaser, we see a tight shot of the Hyundai logo. However, one will also notice a different grille pattern for the new Santa Cruz. The daytime running light design also appears to have been changed.
So, what else can we expect from the new compact pickup? A look at the improved Tucson should provide some answers. These include enhancements to the advanced driver assist systems (Hyundai Smart Sense), along with a few tweaks to the cabin.
We’ll find out more once the pickup is fully revealed, including new features and specifications.
