Photo: KDesign AG / Behance
Just recently, the compact pickup truck segment became fashionable once again in North America. Meanwhile, it never lost its mojo across other major regions.
The return of the compact pickup truck was heralded in North America with help from the unibody four-door Hyundai Santa Cruz. Released for the 2022 model year, this was the South Korean automaker’s first-ever such pickup truck for the region. And, naturally, it is built locally, at the HMMA (Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama) plant in Montgomery, Alabama.
But the true heir of the segment’s crown was revealed to be Ford’s reinvented Maverick, a nameplate that was initially sold as a compact car sold in North America and Brazil during the 1970s, then as a rebadged Nissan Patrol (Y60) in Australia during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as a series of SUVs and CUVs for the European market during the 1990s and early 2000s.
At long last, it triumphantly returned to North America as the compact unibody Crew Cab pickup truck based on the Escape and Bronco Sport CUVs and produced in Mexico at the Hermosillo Stamping and Assembly plant in 2021. Cheap and hybridized, the Maverick quickly climbed the sales ranks, and it would have probably posted some neat delivery records if not for the ongoing automotive crises that severely hamper production. And, naturally, the competition is not sitting idle.
Chevrolet, for example, has decided to reinvent the South American Montana nameplate from a front-wheel drive coupé utility pickup vehicle (during the first two generations) into something that is better suited to mitigate the Santa Cruz and Maverick threat if the rival automakers ever decided to start moving South in a bid to capture even more market share.
Normally, the third-gen Chevy Montana, introduced earlier this month in Brazil, has a quirky split-headlight design, a truly modular truck bed that would probably make any Maverick or Santa Cruz owner happier, plus a 1.2-liter three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine that is good for up to 133 hp and 210 Nm (155 lb-ft).
Right now, the Santa Cruz and Maverick are safe from any Montana assault. But what if that were to change? And Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the perfect little Montana truck solution for such a hypothetical attack – a Chevy Montana EV.
Frankly, it makes perfect sense. The Santa Cruz only has ICE on its side, while the Maverick is both ICE and hybrid. But a true EV would trump both in terms of raw power, at least, if not range and payload capacity. Plus, the unofficial Chevy Montana EV idea comes with much better styling, as the pixel master used the regular compact truck as the base and then added the stylish Chevy Silverado EV design philosophy on top.
But the true heir of the segment’s crown was revealed to be Ford’s reinvented Maverick, a nameplate that was initially sold as a compact car sold in North America and Brazil during the 1970s, then as a rebadged Nissan Patrol (Y60) in Australia during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as a series of SUVs and CUVs for the European market during the 1990s and early 2000s.
At long last, it triumphantly returned to North America as the compact unibody Crew Cab pickup truck based on the Escape and Bronco Sport CUVs and produced in Mexico at the Hermosillo Stamping and Assembly plant in 2021. Cheap and hybridized, the Maverick quickly climbed the sales ranks, and it would have probably posted some neat delivery records if not for the ongoing automotive crises that severely hamper production. And, naturally, the competition is not sitting idle.
Chevrolet, for example, has decided to reinvent the South American Montana nameplate from a front-wheel drive coupé utility pickup vehicle (during the first two generations) into something that is better suited to mitigate the Santa Cruz and Maverick threat if the rival automakers ever decided to start moving South in a bid to capture even more market share.
Normally, the third-gen Chevy Montana, introduced earlier this month in Brazil, has a quirky split-headlight design, a truly modular truck bed that would probably make any Maverick or Santa Cruz owner happier, plus a 1.2-liter three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine that is good for up to 133 hp and 210 Nm (155 lb-ft).
Right now, the Santa Cruz and Maverick are safe from any Montana assault. But what if that were to change? And Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the perfect little Montana truck solution for such a hypothetical attack – a Chevy Montana EV.
Frankly, it makes perfect sense. The Santa Cruz only has ICE on its side, while the Maverick is both ICE and hybrid. But a true EV would trump both in terms of raw power, at least, if not range and payload capacity. Plus, the unofficial Chevy Montana EV idea comes with much better styling, as the pixel master used the regular compact truck as the base and then added the stylish Chevy Silverado EV design philosophy on top.
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