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The local boss of the South Korean car brand is bullish with the timeline for a Hyundai dual-cab.
The boss of Hyundai Australia has doubled down on promises to introduce the brand's first dual-cab ute as a Hyundai-developed model, not a rebadged Kia Tasman.
“I’m not leaving until we have a ute,” Hyundai Australia CEO Don Romano adamantly told Drive. “My work permit goes for another two and a half years… I'm not leaving until it's coming.”
That seems a short timeline to bring what he claims will be a class-leading product to market. Romano thinks otherwise, despite pouring cold water on previous hints that the planned dual-cab would come as a platform-sharing venture with General Motors.
“I don't think we're gonna share a platform,” he says. “I don't believe that's an option. I think I have to leave it on the table just in case something goes wrong. But that would not be our main goal. Our main goal is to develop our own Hyundai ute with our own technology that's unique.”
As the ute development project has gradually coalesced, it appears that Hyundai’s aspirations have risen accordingly.
“We could easily take another platform and just go out there and rebadge it, and that's just not acceptable, especially now with the competition continuing to grow,” notes Romano.
“We need to differentiate ourselves, and there are technologies that we're currently developing that are different to anything we brought to market.”
“If we produce what we're talking about at this stage…it's gonna be mindblowing. It's gonna be great,” he says.
“You've got to look at the best utes in the market, who are the two biggest players. We all know who they are. And that's who you have to position yourself with, and you have to bring in some new technology, because a lot of that technology they're using has been around for a long time”…
The potential deal with GM still remains, but is likely to spawn a vehicle running on a different-sized platform that’s not destined for the Australian market.
Romano has 30 months to bring a radically engineered ute to market here in Australia. It seems a stretch, but Romano is focused on making up for lost time. “Yes, we're late, but we're gonna come on stronger. I guess that's the best way to put it.”
