The new Amarok has finally started rolling into dealerships, and Volkswagen Australia is expecting solid supply once the initial burst of customers have received their cars.
The brand has previously said its switch to South African production (previously Argentina) makes it easier to ship to Australia, and forecasts up to 8000 sales in 2023 for the new Amarok ute once cars start flowing into dealers.
“In the initial stages, the supply is quite tight. We had to push the launch by a month due to supply challenges, and supply chain issues – we’ve had cars sitting on boats out in the ocean for weeks on end, because we just can’t get them off the wharf, because they can’t dock,” Volkswagen Commercial boss Ryan Davies told CarExpert.
“What we see in terms of the production out of the factory is good. We would envisage we’ll be able to sell around 8000 this year, and that’s only because that’s what we can get our hands on,” he said.
The best-ever year for the Amarok was 2018, where Volkswagen delivered 9290 cars in Australia.
Mr Davies is bullish about the new model’s chances of topping that figure in the coming years.
“We’re expecting this car to sell more than any vehicle in the commercial vehicle range. I think the highest we’ve ever sold of any model is 9000-odd, we’d certainly be looking to eclipse that,” he said.
Volkswagen’s sales target puts it head-to-head with the Nissan Navara (~8800 sales in 2022) on the VFACTS sales charts. It’d also make it one of Volkswagen Australia’s best sellers.
It has 13,000 expressions of interest for the new ute, and is approaching 2500 pre-orders. The Style is expected to be the best-seller locally, accounting for up to 60 per cent of sales, with the V6 expected to outsell the four-cylinder.
As for the 2.3-litre petrol turbo that’s being offered for the first time? Mr Reid described it as a car “customers haven’t even thought about”.
You can get petrol V8 power in the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 pickups, and the Ford Ranger Raptor packs a turbocharged petrol V6, but no other Amarok rival offers a high-end petrol engine – most are diesel only, or reserve petrol power for low-end fleet specials.
| Year | Amarok deliveries (VFACTS) |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 2649 |
| 2012 | 6742 |
| 2013 | 7522 |
| 2014 | 8285 |
| 2015 | 8545 |
| 2016 | 8261 |
| 2017 | 9282 |
| 2018 | 9290 |
| 2019 | 8371 |
| 2020 | 6343 |
| 2021 | 7659 |
| 2022 | 4514 |
