The Genesis Brand Should Totally Make A Pickup Truck

Nov. 07, 2020 6:36 AM ET by Jared Rosenholtz Design / 17 Comments

With Hyundai's upcoming truck as a base, it could happen.

With mainstream pickup trucks like the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 offering high-dollar luxury trim levels, there isn't really a need for a luxury-branded pickups like the old Cadillac Escalade EXT and Lincoln Mark LT. Buyers seem to be just fine with a truck that reads "Ford" or "GMC" on the front, so long as the interior is plush and feature-rich. But just because the luxury branding isn't strictly needed, that doesn't mean we can't still dream.

It seems that rendering artist Kleber Silva agrees, because he recently designed a new pickup truck from Hyundai's luxury brand, Genesis. The rendering is clearly based on a Chevy Colorado or GMC Canyon, but it uses design elements from the new 2021 Genesis GV80 to imagine what a Korean luxury pickup might look like.

Silva started by borrowing the Genesis signature shield grille and split headlights from the GV80 SUV. He then tacked on the GV80's chrome wheels and reworked the Colorado's taillights into something more like the Genesis split design, even adding "Genesis" and "GV80" badging onto the tailgate for good measure.

Of course, such a thing isn't likely to ever see the light of day, especially not as it appears now. But somewhere, in some alternate universe, we like to think that truck fans are enjoying their luxurious Genesis pickups right now.

Genesis' parent company Hyundai is currently working on a new pickup truck model called the Santa Cruz, and Silva already imagined what that might look like using styling from the new Tucson. The Hyundai Group loves to keep everything internal, so perhaps it could let the Genesis division have access to the Santa Cruz platform.

With more compact proportions and the interior quality of the GV80, we could imagine a pretty stellar luxurious Genesis version. Toss in the 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder or, better yet, the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, and we think Genesis would have a winning formula.