Hyundai Motor Co. expects to enter the U.S. pickup market soon with what’s likely to be an American-made vehicle aimed at luring buyers who aren’t traditional truck owners, an executive said Monday.
“It’ll be a very versatile vehicle,” Michael O’Brien, vice president of product, corporate and digital planning for Hyundai’s U.S. unit, said in an interview. “That has the promise of creating a whole new class of buyers.”
Hyundai would need to manufacture the truck in North America to avoid the 25% tariff on imported trucks. O’Brien strongly suggested the company will opt to produce the new pickup in the U.S.—where the majority of the vehicles will be sold—to avoid political controversy.
“It would have to be made in North America,” he said, while also noting that automakers who have chosen to produce new vehicles in Mexico have drawn the wrath of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hyundai already produces the Elantra and Sonata sedans and the Santa Fe crossover at its factory in Montgomery, Alabama, which has the capacity to make about 400,000 vehicles a year. Its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. assembles the Telluride, Sorento and Optima models at a factory in West Point, Georgia, and manufactures 340,000 vehicles a year.