GM and Hyundai to jointly develop HiLux rival, Australian availability unknown

GM and Hyundai will jointly develop a Toyota HiLux-sized ute aimed at the Latin American market. Could this be Hyundai’s long awaited ute for the Australian market?

The new ute will one of the first five models developed together by the two firms as part of the partnership they signed in September 2024.

For GM, it’s likely the new ‘mid-size’ ute will replace the Chevrolet S10 (above and below), which is a heavily facelifted version of the ute we used to know as the Holden Colorado. The S10/Colorado made its debut back in 2012, and received an extensive facelift last year for Latin America. The North American version was replaced by a brand new model in 2022.

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Thanks to its extensive history with body-on-frame pickup trucks, the General will lead development of the new ute, which will give the Hyundai brand its first workhorse ute.

It’s unknown if this ute will be engineered for right-hand drive, nor do we know if GM or Hyundai have plans on selling it outside of Latin America.

Hyundai Australia has been keen on entering the ute market for a while now, and is expected to make a decision by early 2026 for a car that would go on sale locally around 2029. Given its reluctance to reskin the Kia Tasman, this jointly developed ute may be Hyundai Australia’s entry ticket to the segment.

In addition to this ute, the two firms will also jointly develop a new small car, SUV and ute family for Latin America. Development for these cars will be lead by Hyundai, which will also take the lead for an electric van for North America.

The Latin American cars and body-on-frame ute will be available with internal combustion engines, as well as hybrid drivetrains.

All four vehicles designed for Latin America are expected to be available by 2028, while the electric van will launch by 2028.

GM and Hyundai versions of each of the vehicles announced today will be identical under the skin, but will come with unique exterior and interior designs that are “consistent with their respective brands”.

The Latin American automotive market features a mix of globally available vehicles, HiLux-class utes, and a plethora of models based on automakers’ low cost platforms.

Some of these low cost models are also available in Asia, India, and Africa, but some are locally developed for Latin American tastes, including a good selection of car-based utes, like the Duster-based Renault Oroch and the Jeep Compass-based Fiat Toro.

These locally-developed models tend to have a long life span, and the cars announced today will likely replace the Chevrolet Onix hatch (above) and sedan, and Spin small people mover (above), all of which are 13 years old. For Hyundai, the new cars may succeed the HB20 hatch (below) and sedan, the second generation of which was launched in 2019.

The car-based ute will be a new type of model for Hyundai in Latin America, as the US-built Tucson-based Santa Cruz ‘lifestyle pickup’ isn’t available outside of North America.

Given the 4.7m Chevrolet Montana ute was completely renewed in 2023, it’s possible the new jointly developed car-based ute will be a smaller model, possibly with fewer doors.

Cumulatively, GM and Hyundai expect the five vehicles confirmed today to generate 800,000 sales per year once production has ramped up.

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