Hyundai is reportedly planning to stop production Holy Cross abandoned prematurely due to the lifestyle ute’s sluggish sales figures.
Sources told Automotive News The original plan was for the ute to march off into the sunset in the second quarter of 2027, but the date will be pushed back. Additionally, the current production rate will be halved as Hyundai seeks to reduce the Santa Cruz’s high inventory levels.
If the report is accurate, this will free up capacity at Hyundai’s Alabama plant to produce more of the closely related Tucson SUV.
In response, Hyundai USA told the trade publication that “the ute’s lifecycle plans remain unchanged.”
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Given the Santa Cruz’s weak sales, it will not be replaced directly. Instead, the company has confirmed that it is working on a body-on-frame ute that will launch in the US before 2030.
This ute is being developed in-house and will be a ‘mid-range’ model, taking on the likes of the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier. The midsize ute could also spawn an SUV offshoot that takes on the Toyota 4Runner.
It is unclear whether this new American submarine will be the model that will fulfill Hyundai Australia’s long-held desire for a body-built submarine.
Introduced in 2021, the Santa Cruz seemed like an excellent idea on paper: take the platform of a popular unibody SUV, extend the wheelbase, and mount it on a tray.
It’s the same formula Ford used to create the Maverick ute based on the Bronco Sport and Escape.
While the Maverick belied its name with traditional pickup truck styling, the Santa Cruz leaned into its unibody origins with a non-conformist design that included flying buttresses and provided a much closer connection to the Tucson on which it was based.
When it debuted, also in 2021, the Maverick launched with a starting price of just under $20,000 for the base hybrid model.
Although the starting prices of the two subs are now just $1,605 apart, with the Maverick starting at $28,145 and the Santa Cruz at $29,750, the Santa Cruz’s sales continue to lag well behind its Blue Oval competitor.
Accordingly Good car, bad carIn 2025, the Maverick sold 155,051 units (down 1.5 percent), making it the 19th most popular model in the U.S., while the Santa Cruz came in at number 141, down 25.2 percent to just 23,962 units.
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