Hyundai Officially Announces Entering The Electric Pickup Truck Market

Santa Cruz 2023. (Doc. Hyundai)

JAKARTA - The electric pickup truck market is currently quite mostly inhabited by famous names such as Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, to Tesla Cybertruck. Not to forget Chevrolet Silverado EV, and Hummer EV which is an option for consumers looking for luxury electric pickup trucks.

In a recent Investor Day event, Hyundai officially announced that it is developing an electric pickup truck using a second-generation E-GMP platform to be named eM. The E-GMP platform has now been used by Hyundai to build electric cars such as Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.

"In the second generation platform, the scope of vehicle development extends beyond the medium-sized SUV reached by today's E-GMP system. It covers almost all vehicle classes, from small and large SUVs to pickup trucks, along with superior models of the Genesis brand," Hyundai said in a press statement, June 20.

Hyundai Group President and CEO Jaehoon Chang said that the second-generation special EV platform will be under the group's new Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA). The platform will be used on 13 new Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis electric cars that will be introduced until 2030. One of them may be rumors about Styler's return as an electric car, which Kia GT1 internally calls.

Previously for pickup trucks, Hyundai owns Santa Cruz, and Kia owns Tasman. Well, as reported by Carbuzz, June 21, it is estimated that this Hyundai electric pickup truck is unlike Tasman, which uses a series of frameworks, but will use a single framework that is more similar to Santa Cruz, which is based on fire, indicating that it is likely that this truck is more lifestyle-oriented than daily use.

However, currently, there are very few details about the upcoming electric truck and there is also no information on whether this developed truck will become Hyundai, Kia, or both.

In addition, Hyundai plans to increase the reach of future generations of electric cars by implementing a "new technology" that allows charging and dismantling of batteries while driving, using an independent power bank.

To note, the Hyundai Group owns factories in the United States, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and India that produce electric cars along with fossil fuel cars. This automotive company also during the Investor Day event has set a new target for electric car production - two million electric cars sold annually for Hyundai and Genesis brands, as well as 1.6 million electric cars for the Kia brand, both by 2030.