The US automotive industry experienced the much-anticipated rebound last year, with more than 15 million vehicles delivered in 2023. Of course, as always, trucks and SUVs took the lion's share.
Ford's F-Series remained America's favorite nameplate and best-selling truck for the 47th year in a row, followed by Chevrolet's Silverado and Ram's trucks. The GMC Sierra and the Toyota Tacoma and Tundra are also popular. However, one interesting thing to note is that Ford is in command of both full-size pickup trucks and the reborn compact pickup truck sector because its unibody Maverick is quickly approaching the 100k-delivery threshold.
Now, that means two things – carmakers were probably wrong to dismiss the segment a few years ago, and life is very hard for the only other unibody compact pickup truck on sale in America, aka Hyundai's Santa Cruz. In fact, the latter only sold almost 37k examples last year compared to the former's 94k performance. Naturally, things could get even worse if Hyundai doesn't act fast.
No worries, they're not slouching around. More precisely, our spy photographer partners have caught the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz testing alongside its 2024MY sibling, and it's pretty clear the South Korean automaker will kick off manufacturing of a facelifted Santa Cruz later this year at HMMA in Montgomery, Alabama.
The unibody compact pickup truck is built on the same Hyundai-Kia N3 platform as the 2024 Hyundai Tucson (NX4), and maybe one of the problems with it was that it remained too close for comfort to the crossover-like design of the Tucson. Instead, the rugged Maverick is more akin to the Ranger and F-150 rather than the Escape and Bronco Sport, which share the Ford C2 architecture.
Of course, the latter also has the advantage of selling as a hybrid, and its electrified option actually outsold the Ford F-150 PowerBoost last year. So, maybe Hyundai should also consider a hybrid option for the 2025 Santa Cruz to go along with the updated exterior and interior. We will know all the details soon enough, as the reveal is probably just around the corner.
Until then, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators has been trying to shed some light on the styling perspective for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz based on recent spy shots. For example, the Halo oto channel on YouTube provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are new CGI ideas about the upcoming Santa Cruz.
So, what do you think? Is Hyundai going to offer a subtle update of the Santa Cruz in the hopes of making up the difference between its unibody compact pickup truck and Ford's best-selling Maverick, or is the company preparing a deeper refresh to try and take over the crown next year?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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