Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Only a couple of months ago did General Motors and Hyundai Motor sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on future products, supply chain efficiencies, and clean-energy tech. And already, we’re apparently getting a truck! Well, someone is.
Whispers out of South Korea say that the auto conglomerate bosses followed up with each other in early November regarding the MOU. A takeaway from those talks was joint development of a new pickup truck.
According to South Korean outlet Pulse, GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung met in the U.S., where their discussions explored “various areas for bilateral collaboration, ranging from vehicle development to future energy solutions,” per a Hyundai source.
On the topic of a truck, the automakers are supposedly looking into a “badge engineering” approach which could happen in one of two ways. The vehicle is produced by Hyundai but wears a GM badge, or vice versa. As for design, although Kia is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, it’s possible the collab pickup won’t be as polarizing as the Tasman. Whichever way it goes, the shared project would cut development costs, with both also benefiting from an expanded sales network.
But why a pickup and not something else? Well, GM knows a thing or two about building them, and Hyundai doesn’t have anything in its wheelhouse to help its sales volume. You might be thinking, “What about the Santa Cruz?” What about it? Even though it features a bed, Hyundai refers to the Santa Cruz as a truck-based “sport adventure vehicle.”
The global truck market isn’t small potatoes, either. In 2023, the market was valued at $208.6 billion. However, the GM/Hyundai project would be developed for Latin America, a market GM is no stranger to. Several Chevrolet pickups are already sold there, including the stateside Colorado and Silverado.
GM Authority suggests that if a jointly-developed truck entered the market, the new pickup would replace either the Chevy S10 Max or Chevy D-Max, which themselves are a rebadged Maxus T70 and Isuzu D-Max, respectively.
This isn’t Hyundai’s first big collaborative effort. On a global scale, Hyundai and Toyota are partnering on future mobility tech, robotics, and rally racing. In the U.S., Hyundai has ties with Waymo and is providing Ioniq 5 vehicles for its self-driving fleet.