A Hyundai Pickup Truck? Yes, Please!

Could Hyundai soon be adding a pickup truck to its mix of SUVs and crossovers?  The Automotive News is reporting that the Korean car company is currently researching the possibility of producing either a full-size or small pickup for sale not just in Canada and the United States, but around the world.  The impetus for the potential line-up expansion has to do with the amount of noise that customers have been making at dealerships about the possibility of a Hyundai-badged truck.

Could Hyundai be competitive in the pickup segment?  There are some compelling arguments that indicate the answer could be 'yes.'  For starters, Hyundai is based in South Korean, which has a trade agreement with the U.S. that eliminates the huge import tariff on trucks that other Asian and European automakers have to deal with.  More broadly, almost everything that Hyundai has touched over the course of the past couple of years has turned to gold, so to speak, in terms of sales success.  There's no reason to doubt that the engineering know-how at the brand - as well as its ability to be extremely competitive on pricing - would be able to steal market share away from at least Japanese entries from Nissan and Toyota on the way towards building a legitimate threat to the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Ram).