‘Locked and loaded': new ute coming to Australia

News.com.au

7 days ago

It took Hyundai Australia's new boss minutes to say what his predecessors spent years avoiding – the South Korean brand is getting a ute.
It's a long overdue announcement from the company that currently has no answer to the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, two of Australia's best-selling new vehicles.
Don Romano, formerly head of Hyundai in Canada, has been tasked with turning around the South Korean brand's fading fortunes in Australia. He's only been in the job seven weeks but he's already well aware that Hyundai's lack of a rival to the Ranger, HiLux and more is its biggest problem.
But thanks to his strong reputation with Hyundai's upper management for his successes in Canada, Romano is confident he's the man to make it happen.
'LOCKED AND LOADED'
While he admits it could take until at least the end of the decade to have a ute in Hyundai showrooms, he will make sure the plan is in place before he returns to Canada in three years.
'I want it locked and loaded by the time I leave,' Romano said.
The most obvious, and fastest, way for Hyundai to add a ute to its range would be creating its own version of the upcoming Kia Tasman ute. Kia is Hyundai's sister brand and they share vehicle underpinnings and powertrains across several models already. However, Romano is not sure that the unorthodox looks of the Tasman and its relatively small 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine would be the right fit for Hyundai's range.
' You know, it depends on what we want, it really does,' he said.
'If I were to go with a standard diesel I could probably get it in a few years, but is that really what we want for the market? And number two, how's that gonna fit into the government's plans for NVES [New Vehicle Efficiency Standard]? So we need to really kind of consider, do we just want another ute that everybody else has or what's distinctly Hyundai?'
The other obvious option for a Hyundai ute is the South Korean brand's new partnership with America's General Motors.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding last year to work on a range of shared vehicles and that could include a ute. The General Motors portfolio includes several options for Hyundai, including the Chevrolet Colorado and Silverado, which are both bigger than the Ranger and HiLux.
While a promising option, the deal is so new Romano admitted he's not sure if it could deliver a ute option for Australia yet.
' I cannot tell you whether or not that's feasible at this stage,' he said.
'I just know that we have the relationship now with GM and I know that we need pick-up trucks in a number of markets, and not just Australia. I would say this is probably one of the more important, but the US is no less important, it's much bigger.
'And so now what we're doing is we're assembling all the requests from around the world, and it's being done by a new group that [Hyundai global CEO] Jose Munoz has put together. Just to determine, what are the common grounds? What are the commonalities, what makes the most sense for the company globally?
'And I think that fits with the vision that we have here. Again, it's easy to say, 'Hey, we'll just take this vehicle and put a Hyundai badge on it', but I don't think that's what the market's looking for – something new.'
Ensuring Australia gets the right ute is Romano's clear priority, even if that takes longer, but he insists a plan will be in place within the next three years.
' Honestly, I just can't give a timeline because I want something unique that's distinctly Hyundai,' he said.
'That's something we can differentiate ourselves with, not just another pick-up truck.
'And I'm willing to wait a little longer, but I do want it in the product plan before I leave and go back home to Canada.'
After selling more than 100,000 cars per year in 2014, 2015 and 2016, Hyundai's love affair with Australia has faded. Last year Hyundai managed to sell 71,664 cars, a third of No. 1 Toyota's sales and none of Hyundai's models made the top 10 best selling cars of 2025.