Hyundai Silverado? Korean brand could rebadge GM pickups - report

Hyundai doesn’t yet offer a traditional ute, but it could roll one out in Latin America based on a General Motors vehicle.

Korean outlet Pulse reports Hyundai and GM plan to jointly develop pickup trucks for Latin America, following their joint announcement in September wherein the companies signed an agreement to explore future partnership opportunities.

This will reportedly entail Hyundai rebadging GM vehicles, while GM could in turn rebadge Hyundai vehicles – though it’s unclear what GM would want in return for lending one of its pickups.

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GM and Hyundai are also reportedly looking to exchange stakes and create cross-shareholdings.

“During the latest meeting, the two leaders reviewed the progress made since the MOU was signed,” Pulse quotes a Hyundai official as saying.

“We are exploring various areas for bilateral collaboration, ranging from vehicle development to future energy solutions.”

The companies announced in September they had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding “to investigate joint product development, manufacturing and future clean energy technologies”.

GM offers a variety of utes/pickups it could loan to Hyundai, from the full-sized Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra duo (and their heavy-duty versions) down to Chevrolet’s Trax-based, unibody Montana ute.

In between, GM has new-generation, Ford Ranger-rivalling Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon utes.

It also offers an updated version of the previous-generation Colorado in Latin America called the S10 – not to be confused with the Mexican-market S10 Max, a rebadged LDV T60.

While Hyundai doesn’t offer a traditional body-on-frame ute/pickup at the moment – its Porter, a huge seller in Korea, is a cabover light truck – it offers the Tucson-based (and therefore unibody) Santa Cruz in markets like the US.

It also has trademarked the Ioniq T7 and Ioniq T10 nameplates, understood to be earmarked for a pair of electric utes.

Hyundai confirmed in 2023 its next-generation electric vehicle (EV) platform, called IMA, can support pickup trucks.

It had previously ruled out developing its own combustion-powered ute, despite sister brand Kia recently revealing its Ford Ranger-rivalling Tasman.

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