The new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz small truck is rolling into dealerships. Those interested in the first genuine compact truck for sale in America in at least a decade can now visit their local Hyundai dealership to see it in person.
The Santa Cruz starts at $23,990 (plus a delivery fee of $1,185) for the base, front-wheel-drive SE trim with a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine. A well-equipped Limited all-wheel-drive model can climb to over $40,000 with a more powerful turbocharged 4-cylinder engine.
We had the chance to drive the Santa Cruz recently and will publish our impressions soon.
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The Rebirth of the Compact Truck
The Santa Cruz’s arrival brings back a segment long dead in the American market – small pickups. The smallest trucks for sale in America before it arrived were midsize. The Santa Cruz, along with Ford’s soon-to-arrive Maverick pickup, is close to the size of compact cars and SUVs but offers an open bed like a truck.
It’s Hyundai’s first crack at building a truck. They’ve made some unconventional decisions – like building it on a car’s unibody frame instead of the ladder frames more common to pickups. That should give it a smooth on-road ride, though it will likely limit its off-road performance compared to more traditional trucks. It’s built on the bones of the well-reviewed 2022 Hyundai Tucson SUV.
The Santa Cruz’s bed is small, at just 52.1 inches. But it includes a locking trunk beneath the load floor and should be easy to maneuver in urban settings.
An Empty Playing Field, for Now
For now, it has no true competition. But Ford has begun accepting orders for the Maverick and expects to begin deliveries in the fall. Sources have reported that Nissan may bring a small truck to market within the next few years as well. Ram builds its own small truck, the Ram 750, for sale in other markets.
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