Hyundai ute's secret weapon: The 15-year plan for diesel dual-cab destroyer to dethrone the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux in Australia

Hyundai's new ute promises to be unlike anything we've seen in Australia to date, and the result of 15 years of careful plotting and planning to dethrone the kings of Australia's dual-cab segment.

The focus, says Hyundai, will be on its powertrain development, with the brand promising new technology that will deliver both efficiency and capability – including towing.

The brand is yet to officially confirm the powertrain solution, but it's now widely tipped to be an EREV – or Extended Range Electric Vehicle – which pairs a petrol engine with an electric motor, or motors, to deliver an EV-like drive experience without needing to plug in.

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The technology is currently being developed for the Hyundai Group's "large vehicles", and a version of it is expected to also appear in the Palisade, Santa Fe and some Genesis products as early as 2027.

Towing capability, critical for a ute's success, is a focus. Take this from Manfred Harrer, Head of the Vehicle Development Tech Unit at Hyundai Motor Group.

"The beauty of EREVs lies in combining EV driving characteristics — instant high torque and serene cabin space — with a longer range. It’s kind of a modern hybrid: You can use it as an EV on a daily basis, but if you have to take a long trip, and you don’t want to carefully plan your route around EV charging stations, it provides seamless driving with the ICE generating electricity for you. This freedom is generating a lot of excitement around the world.

"But there’s more to EREVs than range. There’s also the ample power for towing capacity — the energy to tow something like a horse trailer — which remains an unsolved issue with EVs."

Hyundai Santa Cruz

While the powertrain and its specifics remain unconfirmed, Hyundai in Australia has assured that it will be a new offering in our market. And a contracting ute market, and rush of new competitors, hasn't dented its confidence. 

"I still think you need to have a ute. It still plays an important part in the portfolio. Now, what the volume will be in the long term, I can't answer that question, but (utes are) 20 per cent of the market. So you're not participating in one in five cars being sold," says Hyundai Australia COO Gavin Donaldson.

"When you look at it from a ute point of view, it also makes the second car in the driveway easier to sell. And if you have a product portfolio like Hyundai does, it actually will complement all the other vehicles that we do. So I think it gives us volume opportunities from that point of view.

Hyundai Santa Cruz

"It also gives you good opportunities from a dealer network point of view, from a finance point of view, an after sales point of view, accessory point of view.

"So for us, we are not walking away from a ute. We still want a ute. We're in great consultation. 

"I think one of the good things about what we've seen is that with (new CEO) Don (Romano) just more doors are opening up for our product team to be involved in heavy meetings.

"I think ultimately what it's about, it's the powertrain we're trying to get into the country, what we can put into a ute, what powertrains we can have from that perspective."

It's also far from a new product, with Hyundai's Product Development Manager, Tim Rodgers, confirming a ute has been in planning for well over a decade.

"We're continually feeding into HQ and other regional offices about what our requirements would be. We've been studying for 15-odd years and the proposal continually updates," he says.

"There's a huge portfolio of information that HQ has about our market, our market requirements, how we view the market, what would be successful, what would be a differentiated offering, what would be a mainstream offering.

"We'd be nervous bringing in something that already exists. We'd need to be differentiated. I think that's a key thing. The opportunity there for us is maybe a powertrain. That's probably where we're focusing."

Hyundai's ute is expected to launch in 2028, with the company's executives saying that's the "rough window".