Hyundai and GM may build a pickup truck together: report

Don’t you like it when a plan comes together? Just a few months ago, General Motors and Hyundai Motor signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on future products, supply chain efficiency and clean energy technology. And apparently we’re already getting a truck! Well, someone does.

Whispers from South Korea say auto conglomerate bosses followed suit on the MOU in early November. One of the lessons we learned from these conversations was the joint development of a new pick-up.

According to South Korean outlet PulseGM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung met in the US, where their discussions “explored several areas for bilateral cooperation ranging from vehicle development to future energy solutions,” a Hyundai source said.

On the truck side, automakers are said to be exploring a “badge engineering” approach, which could be done in two ways. The vehicle is produced by Hyundai but carries a GM badge, or vice versa. As for the design, even though Kia is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, it’s possible the collab pickup won’t be as polarizing as the Tasman. Either way, the shared project would reduce development costs, with both also benefiting from an extensive sales network.

But why a pickup and not something else? Well, GM knows a thing or two about building them, and Hyundai has nothing in its wheelhouse to increase sales volume. You might be thinking, “What about the Santa Cruz?” What about it? Although it has a bed, Hyundai calls the Santa Cruz a truck-based “sports-adventure vehicle.”

The global truck market is not a small one either. In 2023, the market was valued at $208.6 billion. However, the GM/Hyundai project would be developed for Latin America, a market to which GM is no stranger. Several Chevrolet pickups are already sold there, including the Colorado and Silverado in the United States.

GM Authority suggests that if a jointly developed truck were to come to market, the new pickup would replace the Chevy S10 Max or Chevy D-Max, which are themselves a rebadged Maxus T70 and Isuzu D-Max respectively.

This is not Hyundai’s first major collaboration. On a global scale, Hyundai and Toyota are collaborating on future mobility technology, robotics and rally racing. In the US, Hyundai has ties with Waymo and is supplying Ioniq 5 vehicles for its self-driving fleet.