Hyundai’s luxury subbrand Genesis has been on a roll when it comes to car design. It makes some of the best-looking sedans and SUVs in the business right now, and it recently just showed off a breathtaking supercar concept that, according to the brand, should actually go into production at some point.
As it turns out, the Genesis design team isn’t just good at drawing cars. It can make a damn good-looking truck, too, at least going by these drawings and renderings supplied to The Autopian. They show an unnamed concept for an American market, all-electric, body-on-frame pickup that never saw the light of day.
While such a pickup will likely never see production, these images give us a glimpse into what Genesis designers were thinking might be the perfect vehicle to sell to Americans. And the results are pretty damn awesome.
Two Distinct Designs
Looking through these images, there are two different design paths Genesis seems to have taken. There are a couple of renderings of a black-painted truck with exaggerated proportions and some big wheels with chunky off-road tires, alongside the company’s signature pentagon-shaped grille and four horizontal line-shaped headlights.
While the greenhouse looks a little small, the flush door handles, keyhole, and rear mirrors suggest production intent. I’m a big fan of the silver-colored lower body portions found on the side skirts and bumpers, which fill out the body nicely. The tailgate, meanwhile, looks to be made from something like Lamborghini’s “Forged Composite” material, which uses molds of carbon fiber to make body panels.
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The second design, which feels even more production-intent, can be seen above in a screenshot from Auto & Design magazine, which was the first to publish these images. The images I’m talking about are of the silver truck on the bottom left (these are the only images Genesis didn’t send us, but they’re still live on Instagram!) This truck has a different fascia that drops the traditional grille and connects the top two headlight strips along the nose. Out back, the taillight strips are linked across the tailgate, while the wheel/tire setup is far more street-focused, with bigger-diameter wheels and less tire.
A sketch of that truck provided by Genesis reveals some of the potential ideas for features that might’ve been included on a production version, including pass-through hoops on the roof, spaces in the running board areas for “small goods” or “extra portable battery,” and a pizza oven-looking front trunk space, where the front-facing panel flips out and up. Cool! There are a handful of other design directions Genesis pursued, too, shown here in sketches:
Genesis also gave me a single interior sketch, and it might be the weirdest part about this truck. The layout is mostly normal, with a steering wheel accompanied by a small instrument screen in front of the driver. But instead of having climate controls (or any screens or buttons at all) on the dash, it looks as if those controls have been moved into a cylindrical object that’s mounted to the center console armrest.
While it looks unique, I have some reservations about drivers having to look down to adjust the temperature, versus just having to glance at the dashboard. Also, if the climate controls are there, where am I putting my Big Gulp? Sure, Genesis could put some cupholders lower down in front of that cylinder, but that would make reaching for them awkward (again, because there’s a big cylinder sticking out of the center console).
In the included renderings was an image of the Genesis pickup towing a previously unseen Airstream-branded trailer, with matching wheels and a fifth-wheel hookup in the bed. The Autopian has asked Genesis and Airstream if there’s anything more to this collaboration, or if it was just a one-off design. I’ll be sure to update this post if I hear anything back.
Just How Real Is This Thing?
These images first surfaced with that Instagram post I linked above from a couple of weeks ago, where they appeared as part of an Auto & Design magazine interview with Genesis president and chief creative officer, Luc Donkerwolke. It was here that the truck’s underpinnings and destined market were revealed:
Of the four “unseen” projects, it is the only one left without a name. “The pickup,” Genesis designers call it. Originally conceived for the American market, where that typology of vehicle is most widespread, it was something of a challenge. “An electric pickup truck? Why not?” Donckerwolke recalls. “Then we discarded it because we had to focus on different projects. Maybe in the future, who knows?” For Genesis it wasn’t a conventional design: not a monocoque, but with a chassis based on two side members. “To give it agreater off-road capability,” is the explanation. Same as the X Gran Equator concept; and indeed, the two vehicles have a family resemblance, styling cues are not water.
The X Gran Equator concept, as a reminder, was another off-road-themed electric concept created by Genesis, except this one was shown to the public last year. Posited as a Mercedes G-Wagen competitor, it had similarly overdone proportions and similar styling, except it was an SUV, not a pickup.
As for that “maybe in the future” line, I’m not holding my breath. Back in November, Donkerwolke revealed to Australian publication CarExpert that a pickup wasn’t in the cards, at least not right now.
“I’m not sure that fits the brand,” Mr Donckerwolke said.
“We have a lot of other things to do. And I think basically, we are focusing more on high performance and GT [Grand Touring] models.”
Mr Donckerwolke, who admits to owning and driving a Ford F-150 Raptor personally, believes that introducing a utilitarian vehicle right now poses a risk to the brand’s carefully cultivated “Athletic Elegance” image.
“We have to make sure that we are not diluting the brand with something which is more utilitarian,” he said.
Genesis said as much when it sent me these photos in a statement given over email:
Genesis often undertakes future design exercises to explore possibilities for our ever-expanding portfolio. While some of these concepts ultimately don’t move forward to production, this showcases the broad capabilities and strengths of the Genesis design team.
While it’s always sad to see such a cool concept get rejected, I can’t exactly blame Genesis for this one. Had it built this pickup, it would’ve been competing in an already tiny, cutthroat segment against the likes of the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Rivian R1T, and the Chevy Silverado EV. For the company to build a successful body-on-frame truck for America—something it’s never done before—would’ve been a tall order, especially if it were all-electric.
I’m at least happy this design got to see the light of day, even if it was just through the internet. For every Genesis pickup concept, dozens more squashed designs are tucked away in the filing cabinets of automaker design centers, never to be seen again.
Top graphic image: Genesis
So they took the Ford Mighty F-350 Tonka and Super Chief concepts and Genesis-ized them?
This doesn’t look bad:
TASMAN Series
These look like someone fed some tonka trucks a viagra. These are not good looking, they’re just an exaggeration of the absurd “styling” of current trucks. Just bigger, more bloated, wider, fatter–kind of like the average pickup truck buyer! Ho ho ho!
I do kind of like the looks of a dune jumper in the form of the Skorpio, though it would not make it the street in that for I imagine. https://newsroom.genesis.com/genesis-unveils-off-road-x-skorpio-concept-new-concept-car-strategy/#
In a world where i have to look at Cybertrucks, I’d rather have to look at these. They are stupid and excessive but in a more pleasing way.
That interior is way too spartan, it doesn’t match the “LOOK AT ME!!!” exterior at all. The climate control thing would never see production, but neither will these trucks.
Just ick. Anyone involved should be banned from the industry.
What the fuck, that’s ugly.
Reminds me of the VW pick up concept from 2000 which eventually became the Touareg
Brian I think you’re too positive, in no world is that a good looking concept!
Even as a Linux user, I don’t understand how truck designers can hate windows this much.
As much as the idea of finding out what a Korean take on the electric luxury pickup would be intrigues me, that is no way it would sell. Genesis would hemorrhage money on each one of them. They’d be better off putting the whole production run on a barge and pulling out the stopper for an insurance payout.
It’s for the best that it will never see the light of day. I respect the creativity and ambition, but some dreams are best left unfulfilled.
Can’t see the public getting amped up to buy this… That brutalist styling is really draining too… I guess I’m just really negative on full size EV pickups…
Light news day eh?
Shame that they couldn’t just import the KM450 and call it a day.
Yeah… it looks stupid. Nothing missing.
We dodged a bullet here.
My first thought was why genesis but there has been quite and market for luxury trucks. The rendering with the airstream looks very Rivian. Expensive luxury (bev) pickup would have made sense a few years ago. They probably made the realization down market is where to be on it especially at first. Make a Hyundai or Kia version that undercuts everyone and maybe you have something. I know some well to do rednecks that have genesis’ so it might not be a big of stretch as most people think.
They would sell all of 73 of these.
Smart move to cancel it.
I’m not sure if we will ever see a non big 2.5 automaker ever grab serious market share in the full size pickup segment. It is extremely telling that Toyota, a brand that had a big reputation for reliability and toughness was unable to make a lasting dent in the full size pickup market with the Tundra. They seemed like they were a solid player in the late 2000s early 2010s but never captured huge market share. I’m not sure anyone would have a better shot than them. This is a cool design though.
And I think the only way another brand can, is by very, very, very slowly developing a following through small and midsized trucks, like Toyota has with the Tacoma. And even that didn’t quite move the needle enough for the Tundra.
The Tacoma benefitted from GM and Ford exiting the segment in the 2000s, the midsize buyers don’t seem to be ask intense in the support for their brand.
Hard to be loyal to a brand that doesn’t sell the thing you want.
Its because the American companies are constantly updating their trucks and Toyota just keeps making the same model for 10+ years at a time.
Why don’t they slap a Hyundai or Kia badge on it and build it and sell it stateside? Maybe forgo the BEV platform and go PHEV or just straight ICE. If they’re able to undercut the domestic manufacturers by $5,000 the vehicle might have a fighting chance.
Of course, they would have to build it here to have a real chance, what with tariffs (both Trump-related, and pre-Trump, as in the chicken tax)
I always liked the VW Amarok TDIs I saw in Mexico. Stupid chicken tax.
Front visibility? They’ve decided to go in a different direction.
Not sure about going a different direction: rear visibility seems even worse
Maybe they are thinking that cameras will solve all the problems. More likely since it is just a concept it never made it past the concept look.
Almost certainly! I was just being silly. I’m hoping the greenhouse would be a more reasonable size if it ever made it to production + a bunch of tech to help with visibility.
I get it, but honestly, I wouldn’t put it past them to just rely on cameras.
They hired the guy from GM styling that did the 5/6 gen Camaro greenhouse.
I feel like the rendered concept that is in the lede image is a caricature of a modern American pickup truck. Big wheels, big off road tyres, big grill, maximum empty space under the bonnet for maximum ego storage.
The exaggerated light bars on the front make it playful, like the whiskers on a mouse.
They clearly don’t understand that pickups are meant to be angry, aggressive, promise capabilities that people will ignore so they can commute down a freeway, and with headlights harnessing the power of the sun aimed directly at the back of all other driver’s retinas.
You also forgot obnoxious exhaust noises for a vehicle with a top speed that’s lower than a Honda Fits.
Surprisingly, Rivian also forgot. It always surprises me when I occasionally spot one. They look more like an electric ‘honda’ product.
Maybe that’s why I kinda like them. And being located 30 minutes from the plant probably doesn’t hurt.