Hyundai recently announced its plan to go after the heart of the North American adventure truck market. At its 2026 CEO Investor Day, the company confirmed that a new body-on-frame mid-size pickup is part of its product plan, with the truck expected to arrive in North America before 2030. Hyundai says it will be designed in America, developed for American buyers, and built in America using Hyundai-produced US steel.
This is a bold move for a company that has never sold a traditional ladder frame pickup in North America.
The interior of Hyundai’s Boulder concept SUV.
Hyundai’s current Santa Cruz is a unibody compact truck that shares its basic architecture with passenger vehicles. The Santa Cruz nevertheless has given Hyundai valuable experience with truck buyers, and its XRT trim has pushed further into the adventure market with all terrain tires, front recovery hooks, and improved approach angle.
The plan
In 2026 at the New York International Auto show Hyundai previewed the underlying philosophy with the Boulder concept. Riding on 37-inch M/T tires and built on a fully-boxed ladder frame. That concept certainly grabbed a lot of attention. It was clearly designed around serious off-road use, towing, and hauling, with substantial ground clearance, a roof rack, full size spare, and a software-based trail guidance system. But one-off concepts are much easier to build than a fully engineered production vehicle.
The Pickup
Much to the surprise of many who assumed the Boulder concept would remain exactly that—a concept—Hyundai now says the production pickup will use the architecture from the Boulder. Although we should not assume the concept’s extreme equipment will appear unchanged on the production truck.
Hyundai Boulder concept SUV.
Hyundai’s mid-size pickup will be stepping directly into the territory occupied by the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, and Chevrolet Colorado. Depending on final dimensions and specs, the Jeep Gladiator may also be firmly in its sights. Internationally, the Ranger and Toyota Hilux will be particularly important benchmarks.
Powertrain details remain one of the biggest unanswered questions, with Hyundai previously suggesting that the truck could use the company’s 329-horsepower hybrid system, currently offered in the Palisade Hybrid. However, more recent reporting points toward extended range electric technology becoming an important part of Hyundai’s future. Hyundai has not officially confirmed the production engine, horsepower, battery capacity, towing rating, or four-wheel drive system.
Across multiple vehicles, Hyundai is planning more than ten hybrid models for North America by 2030, with hybrids expected to represent half of its total sales mix. The company is also developing extended-range electric vehicles, including a Santa Fe EREV scheduled for 2027 with more than 600 miles of total range. An EREV pickup could offer electric drive for trail use while retaining gasoline-powered long-distance capability, and is exactly what Ram and Ford should be releasing any day now.
Hyundai Boulder concept SUV.
Pricing and Timeline
A reasonable target would place the truck around the lower to middle $40,000 range before expensive off-road packages, putting it directly against mainstream Tacoma, Ranger, and Colorado configurations. Keep in mind this is purely an estimate, not anything official from Hyundai.
Hyundai says the truck will arrive by 2030, and during CEO Investor Day the company confirmed 58 new or refreshed products for North America through that period. The company has already committed to expanding North American production capacity by 500,000 vehicles.
It appears Hyundai is very serious about the off-road market, and will be diving into a pool full of hungry competitors when their mid-size pickup launches in 2030. It may even have to go toe to toe with the likely <a href=“https://expeditionportal.com/ford-planning-a-bronco-pickup/“>Bronco Pickup</a>. It appears to have the right underpinnings to get the job done. Here’s hoping Hyundai can nail the driveline and 4WD goodies to make this pickup a true contender in the hotly contested US market.
Hyundai Boulder concept SUV.
The Santa Cruz proved without a doubt that Hyundai could sell a lifestyle pickup, and we’re about to find out whether it can build one that can genuinely go somewhere.
While we have plenty of images of the Boulder SUV concept, Hyundai has not released any renderings, sketches, or images of the upcoming pickup. To get the imagination running, I asked ChatGPT to create a few different renders based on the Boulder concept.
ChatGPT renders of a potential Hyundai pickup truck.
Read more: Field Tested: The Campspotter App
Images: Hyundai, ChatGPT
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