Last week, the Hyundai Boulder concept stole the show at the New York International Auto Show, but will the buzz be short lived or is it time to shake things up?
What is the Hyundai Boulder Concept?
If you missed the news, the Hyundai Boulder concept is essentially a styling experiment from the Korean-brand showcasing what their team can do.
The end result is basically what you’d get if you asked AI to combine a Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler and an old-school Land Rover Defender together.
The silver, 4-door off-road SUV looks bolder, even bolder if you will than others on the market, and grabbed the attention of everyone in attendance including other brand representatives slyly making their way over.
It is also the first of what Hyundai says will be the start of several body-on-frame midsize trucks and SUVs coming.
Designer’s Dream Rig
Heading the design team was Hyundai’s Brad Arnold, a southern California native, who understands the off-road lifestyle. I had the opportunity to interview him about his concept vehicle.
“I grew up in Southern California,” Arnold said. “I grew up riding dirt bikes. So, everybody I was around had a truck ’cause you had to have a truck, right?”
He’s been with Hyundai since 2008 helping to design sedans and unibody SUVs that while stylish in their own way, are nothing like a body-on-frame vehicle.
“If you asked 2008 Brad, did he think we’d be doing body-on-frame trucks and off-roading at Hyundai?,” he said. “Probably, I could not have imagined that.”
This design allowed him and his team to create a literal sand box in their design studio and play around with a whole new set of ideas and requirements.
“I think body-on-frame, this idea of flexibility, kept at the top of our brains the entire time while designing, because body-on-frame does offer you a lot of flexibility on what types of products you can make on that chassis and also what types of activities you can do with that,” he said.
And the design very much supports that type of flexibility that if you’re a surfer or a biker or a camper or you just like the way that those things look, you can do that on this vehicle, and it makes it so that the image of the vehicle will constantly be evolving with the activities that the customers decide to partake in.”
What is Under the Hood?
A key question left unanswered is what will power these body-on-frame vehicles from Hyundai.
The Hyundai Boulder concept was suspiciously absent from any discussion of powertrain and had no exhaust pipes.
EV then? Let’s hope not. The demand for that powertrain for body-on-frame SUVs has not materialized to say the least.
Much more likely it will be some sort of a small displacement turbocharged engine.
Built in the U.S. for You
Hyundai’s presentation at the auto show focused on a ‘Murica theme.
The automaker said they were going to build these vehicles with American steel, using American labor and for the American consumer.
Granted these statements really reflect the Chicken Tax tariff reality in the U.S. along with the marketing angle from Hyundai.
Are You Ready?
The big challenge for Hyundai remains, can they sell midsize pickup trucks and SUVs to U.S. consumers?
There are going to be many challenges.
First, for most Americans growing up in the 1980s through the 2000s, the Kia/Hyundai brand had a poor reputation for reliability. Changing this viewpoint is going to be hard in a segment where reliability is a much bigger issue than other segments.
Second, Hyundai sees the midsize truck market as an area with lots of potential. Maybe. Ram is making a comeback with their Dakota and Toyota continues to dominate the market. How much volume can they really expect to gain?
Third, Kia is also considering building a midsize truck. While Hyundai sees themselves as a different company as Kia, for American consumers, this is like Chevrolet and GMC. It is the same GM truck, just a different badge for consumers.
Can they sell a mid-size truck or an off-road SUV in the U.S.? Sure. They will find a market with their established fan base. The question comes down to how many “conquest” buyers they can find. That is how many customers they can convert from other brands. Brand loyalty is a big deal in the truck market and that’s going to be expensive to make happen.
