New Hyundai dual-cab ute 2023 render revealed: Could Korea's Toyota HiLux rival look this good?

Hyundai's first proper ute has been rendered as a tough-looking workhorse as we continue to count down the days to the Korean Ford Ranger rival's official unveiling.

This images are the work of designer Enoch Gonzales, who has even furnished the truck with a name - the Hyundai Tarlac.

The designer has clearly decided to skip right past the incoming Santa Cruz - which is a unibody truck - and move directly to the ladder-frame HiLux rival, with these images looking bigger and more rugged than the "lifestyle" truck now confirmed for production.

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The downside, though, is that these are just imaginings, so let's reminisce on what we do know so far. 

Hyundai in Australia has confirmed that it is expecting to have a true Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger rival in Australia by 2023, which would give the brand its first entrant into one of the country's biggest segments - the dual-cab ute market. 

"The sooner the better," Hyundai Australia's former boss, JW Lee, has told CarsGuide. "All the time I’m crying and praying whenever I have the chance to bring this issue to headquarters, so the sooner the better.

"(But) 2023 is our target year. It depends on production and the plant. I think the candidate plant is still under study, where we’re going to produce those vehicles is yet to be decided."

The ute will be twinned with a Kia version, with Hyundai's stable mate also confirming that "work has begun" on its truck, too. 

Forget the lifestyle-focused Santa Cruz pick-up concept, what Hyundai (and Kia) are talking about here is a serious workhorse - and that means single-cab, dual-cab, cab-chassis, petrol and diesel engines and proper four-wheel drive.

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It should also mean a one-tonne payload and a three-tonne braked towing capacity.

As far as engines go, well, that's a bit more mysterious. However, there have been hints that the straight-six-cylinder diesel from the new GV80 - which makes a considerable 205kW of power and 588Nm - could be on the cards.

“With this engine we can have so many applications. As you know, we make commercial vehicles and so on, so this engine will be out there for quite some time. You don’t need to worry about that engine,” Hyundai's Albert Biermann told CarsGuide in January, before clarifying that “we have not finally decided yet” where that engine will end up.