Volkswagen has been talking about a pickup for the United States for years and yet you won’t find one at a dealership. Pictured here is the Tarok, a conceptual truck introduced in April 2019 at the New York Auto Show. Nearly four years later, there’s still no sign of a VW-badged workhorse as the new Amarok is not coming to North America. Nevertheless, the company hasn’t given up on the idea, according to a statement made by VW CEO of America.
Speaking this week with journalists at the Chicago Auto Show where the 2024 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport made their debut, Pablo Di Si shared some preliminary details with Autoblog about a potential workhorse. He said it “would not be a combustion,” and by that he meant a pickup would not be powered solely by a gasoline engine: “Let me define, electrified. It can be electric. It can be a plug-in. It cannot be a combustion engine. That’s for sure.”
He went on to say a decision will be taken in the second half of the year, and if approved, the truck would not be related to the 2026 Scout. The project is still in its infancy considering VW hasn’t even decided on the platform or even on the vehicle’s size. That tells us it’s a long way off, and if it’ll happen, Pablo Di Si said the truck would use an existing platform. Consequently, it means the vehicle would have a unibody construction since VW doesn’t have a body-on-frame architecture aside from the aging hardware used by the first-gen Amarok, which is still in production.
The head honcho specified it would have to be developed specifically for the US market, pointing toward a possible connection with the Atlas or the smaller Taos. The general tone of the interview tells us VW customers are in for a long wait since no final decisions have been taken yet.
Why hasn’t it happened already? Hein Scafer, SVP of Product Marketing and Strategy told Autoblog a PHEV or EV truck was put on the back burner to prioritize the development of electric SUVs.
