The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a charming little compact pickup truck that blasted onto the scene in 2021 with much fanfare. It was the first such-sized pickup to appear in the American market for some time, and Hyundai’s first attempt at breaking into a utilitarian segment.
Though it’s only been around for a few years, Automotive News, citing unnamed sources, reports that Hyundai is planning to cut and eventually end production of the Santa Cruz, with no direct replacement planned.
While Hyundai declined to comment on whether the Santa Cruz is actually on its way out, a spokesperson told The Autopian the pickup “has helped Hyundai gain valuable experience and visibility in the open-bed market.” Here’s what we know.
Allegedly Cut Short Due To Slow Sales
Automotive News spoke with several sources on Hyundai’s move to reportedly kill off its compact pickup ahead of schedule, citing low demand. From the article:
Originally slated to continue through the second quarter of 2027, Santa Cruz production now is expected to end sooner, a person briefed on the plan said.
Another source confirmed the phaseout, driven by weak sales and elevated inventory. The truck’s only like-sized competitor, the Ford Maverick, outsold it 6-to-1 in 2025, leaving Hyundai dealerships with nearly five months’ worth in stock at year end.
Hyundai has told suppliers it is cutting Santa Cruz production by roughly half this quarter, one source said.
As Autonews points out, discontinuing the lagging Santa Cruz would free up space at the company’s Montgomery, Alabama assembly plant, where it also builds the Tucson. The Tucson, coincidentally, is Hyundai’s most popular car—the Korean automaker sold over 200,000 of them last year, an increase of 14% over the year prior. Going by a pure demand perspective, shifting resources to the car that people want more of isn’t a bad move.
If It’s True, I’m Not Terribly Surprised
Since the Ford Maverick’s debut, the Santa Cruz has been playing second fiddle in the small (but very competitive) compact pickup segment. The Ford is both more efficient (38 mpg combined versus 25 mpg for the Hyundai) and has a more spacious bed (4.5 feet long versus 4 feet for the Hyundai). The Maverick is also cheaper, starting at $29,840 including destination, compared to $31,350 for the Santa Cruz.
Buyers overwhelmingly prefer the Maverick. Ford sold 155,051 of the little pickup in 2025, while Hyundai sold just 25,499 Santa Cruzes.
Even if the Santa Cruz could match the Maverick’s specs and price, I suspect the sales numbers would remain similar. Ford is as well-established in the pickup truck game as a brand could be, while Hyundai has never sold any sort of pickup truck in America before this one. Which brings me to why Hyundai says it’s happy with how the Santa Cruz has shaken out in the American market so far.
Hyundai Is Looking At More Than Just Sales Numbers
A Hyundai spokesperson I reached out to wouldn’t comment when asked to confirm whether Automotive News’s reporting was accurate, but they did provide some interesting insight into how the company is measuring the Santa Cruz’s impact on the U.S. market. Here’s the full statement:
“The Santa Cruz Sport Adventure Vehicle continues to be a valued ongoing member of the Hyundai product portfolio. As with all Hyundai vehicles, long range product portfolio planning is guided by many factors including consumer demand and overall market trends. We don’t comment on future product speculation.
Since its launch in 2021, our Santa Cruz sport adventure vehicle has successfully introduced Hyundai to a new type of U.S. consumer who values the capability, versatility, and rugged image of open-bed vehicles.
Not only does Santa Cruz continue to be a valued ongoing member of our product portfolio from a sales perspective, the model has helped Hyundai gain valuable experience and visibility in the open-bed market. These developments contributed directly to the announcement of a new midsize body-on-frame truck that we confirmed during our 2025 CEO Investor Day last September. That vehicle is due in the U.S. market before 2030.”
That last paragraph is the important part. In essence, it suggests that Hyundai is using the learnings it’s gained from developing and selling the Santa Cruz to U.S. buyers as a stepping stone for the bigger, body-on-frame truck it plans to launch in the near future (2029, per Automotive News).
All things considered, that makes a lot of sense—while the Santa Cruz isn’t (wasn’t?) a gigantic, runaway success, Hyundai surely learned a whole bunch about how to market a pickup truck in America, and now knows far more about their buyers and their preferences. That intel alone is extremely valuable.
This new truck will likely look and drive far differently than the Santa Cruz, a unibody truck that shared much of its design with the Tucson crossover. This one should also be bigger, and compete with the likes of the Ford Ranger, the Chevrolet Colorado, the Toyota Tacoma, and the Honda Ridgeline, rather than the Maverick. Whether it’s any more successful, well, we’ll just have to wait a few years and see.
Top graphic image: Hyundai
Doesn’t seem to matter what I do
I’m always number two
No one knows how hard I tried, oh-oh, I
I have feelings that I can’t explain
Drivin’ me insane
All my life, been so polite
But I’ll sleep alone tonight
Cuz I’m just
KenSanta CruzIts because it looks like they took a car and carved out a bed in the back. It doesn’t remotely resemble a truck and its not very useful- as a truck- either
A retired family member has a Santa Cruz, and for the life of me I couldn’t identify why they went for it over the Maverick except that they sold a Palisade to buy the Santa Cruz. It is a nice vehicle, but for the utility and efficiency the Maverick is better. For the interior usability, the Ridgeline is better. It just exists in a price point where everything it does or might be cross-shopped against does things better.
In another light, is being able to produce niche cars like this going to be a victim of the tariffs?
If exports from the US are tariffed in response to what the US has been doing, then it forces you to re-organize a bit and can’t pick up on these.
Bed was too small, price was too high. We all know it, we all said it.
If this thing looked like a Slate, businesses everywhere would have one, maybe a fleet.
Seeing it is based on the Tuscon, which has a hybrid and PHEV model, did they ever explain why they didn’t at least offer the hybrid?
I’m interested in a Maverick…hybrid. If I want a truck that gets low 20’s mpg, I’ll go get a Ridgeline.
Took em too long to ditch the DCT and the bad mpg/no hybrid didnt help either. Overall I think they’re pretty neat, hopefully the mid-size will be a solid contender.
I’m guessing a quiet part of the production capacity angle is that amid the tariff situation, this could free up room to make more hybrid Santa Fes/maybe add hybrid Tucson production.
If it weren’t for that I think Hyundai would have considered producing it for a long time with updates here and there along the way, like Honda has with the Ridgeline.
I think Hyundai sold exactly the amount of SC’s they intended to sell. It didn’t have the volume aspirations that Ford had with the Maverick and for Ford part of that is necessity, it was always going to be the higher volume model just by virtue of its positioning. Ford has a fleet market to serve, it’s the entry point for the brand and started less than its platformmates. Hyundai has a fuller lineup and 4 models that start at a lower price than the SC.
The Maverick has succeeded because the US is truck-centric. Even while some folks argue that the Maverick isn’t a “real truck” (whatever that means) it looks like a truck.
Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz is neither fish nor fowl. It doesn’t look like a truck, it looks like a CUV with a roof-ectomy. Same thing happened with the Subaru Baja.
Honestly, 25mpg is insulting. A freaking F-150 can best it in certain configurations.
Shoot, I got 26 mpg while cruising at 70 mph in the F-150 FP700, and that thing was a supercharged V8 that wanted to do nothing but burnouts.
I rest my case, your honor.
The biggest difference I see between Maverick and Santa Cruz is that Maverick was truck that happened to be compact while Santa Cruz was a compact that happened to be a truck.
Two VERY different buyers.
I, for one, have a Maverick. It continues to be an incredibly handy little trucklet. It does most of what I need it to (I’ve only been let down by its bed size once). I would describe it like a multitool: Is it the best screwdriver/knife/bottle opener in the world? No. Is is incredibly handy in a pinch? Yup!
I have a Maverick hybrid, and I agree that it is very useful and outperforms it’s price point. (I ordered mine when it was announced and paid a lot less than it retails for today.) Both the Hyundai and the Ford are unibody vehicles, so in my mind they’re equal on that. I actually like the looks of the Hyundai better, but it just doesn’t compete on fuel economy or price.
I wouldn’t describe the Maverick as a multitool; if the F150 is a full size screwdriver, the Maverick is a stubby screwdriver.
It probably would’ve sold if they put a hybrid powertrain in it.
Yeah I was going to say I think Hyundai really screwed the pooch on this one by not having a hybrid option.
The sad part being that the Tucson had the hybrid option, but it’s truck version didn’t — and it needed it more. I’m sure there was either a tecnical reason why that wouldn’t work or, more likely, they knew it was going to just die on the vine.
They could have had the only PHEV truck on the market.
From a competitive standpoint, the Tucson needed it more. The two biggest players in that segment have had a heavy mix of hybrids. Just the RAV4 hybrid alone has run something like ~75% of of all Tucson sales the last few years and that’s of course changing now that the 2026 RAV is only hybrid.
“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die”-HST
I blame its demise on the lack of an N model
Username checks out.
Ron Swanson voice: I know what I’m about, son
Lets hope Hyundai makes a pickup with a 6 ft bed.
One can hope, but I wouldn’t count on it. If they’re competing in the mid-size segment, my guess will be 5 or 5.5 foot. And I think they’ll get their clocks cleaned in that segment, too.
Imagine a smaller than mid sized actual truck shaped with a 6ft box and aimed at the work truck market. (cool but probably still a fail)
I still see them a couple times a day and think they’re fantastic cars especially for the retiree set (I say this because the back seat is tight, and the bed is just enough to get 10 gallons of knockout roses home from the nursery.)
I drove one of these with the 2.5t and it was…scary quick. The chassis wasn’t prepared for the power, but it was still admirable. I just hate that it was sized like a Tuscon, but priced like a Santa Fe.
I haven’t been in a 2nd Gen Ridgeline, but I assumed it was in the same class as this and the Maverick. The last sentence of the article implies otherwise.
I’m not exactly disappointed in the Santa Cruz departing. The Maverick simply does the same task better.
The Evolutionary Chart of Modern El Caminos is basically, left to right, Santa Cruz, Maverick, Ridgeline.
The one thing where I will ding the Maverick is the lack of style. It’s pure function, no pretense (which I appreciate), but I’m also shocked it sells so well in the current era of aggressive styling and “fake capability” — not just trucks, it’s most cars.
You ding it for that, but I praise it for it’s function-over-form approach. And don’t worry, they still make a “fake capability” version in the tremor trim.
I like the looks of the Hyundai a lot, but I bought the Maverick because better fuel economy and price.
A Ridgeline is quite a lot larger in every dimension than a Maverick and Santa Cruz.
Example Dimensions: Hyundai Santa Cruz 2021-present vs. Honda Ridgeline 2016-present