Volkswagen of America boss says a pickup isn’t a precedence

Returning to North America’s pickup phase after a decades-long hiatus is not a precedence for Volkswagen, in accordance with a latest report. A number of the firm’s high executives mentioned they’re conscious sellers desire a truck, however their most important focus is launching extra crossovers and SUVs.

Volkswagen will quickly plant its stake within the truck phase by way of the newly-created Scout model, which goals to place a contemporary and electrical spin on the Worldwide Harvester Scout bought from the Sixties to the Eighties. The vary will initially embrace an SUV and a pickup designed with a concentrate on off-roading and constructed on a brand new platform. Sharing this platform with the Volkswagen model is not deliberate, executives mentioned.

“In the mean time, our concentrate on the lineup does not embrace it. We now have a transparent lineup throughout the second half of this decade. Then once more, within the American market, in the event you do not play in sure segments then you must keep in a sure market share space. However the query of [the new “Rugged SUV” platform] isn’t our precedence in the mean time,” Volkswagen model boss Thomas Schäfer advised Automotive Information.

Pablo Di Si, the top of Volkswagen’s North American division, echoed these feedback.

“What are the related segments within the U.S.? SUVs and pickups. Are we going to have a pickup? I’ll attempt. Do we now have one now? No. Proper now, my focus is on strengthening the SUV portfolio. I’ll deal with pickups on the proper time, however proper now I’ve different points to sort out.”

Volkswagen has experimented with a number of several types of vans in recent times. It unveiled an idea referred to as Atlas Tanoak (pictured) in 2018 that shared its fundamental unibody platform with the Atlas SUV. If launched, the pickup would have competed instantly in opposition to the Honda Ridgeline. Volkswagen hinted it was contemplating turning the design examine right into a manufacturing mannequin however finally canned the challenge. Quick-forward to 2019 and a second pickup idea referred to as Tarok made its debut on the New York Auto Present to “gauge market response.” It was constructed on a unibody platform as properly. Whereas the city-friendly truck should attain manufacturing in South America, nothing suggests we’ll see it right here.

Time will inform whether or not Volkswagen as soon as once more sells a pickup in the USA — it hasn’t supplied one because the Pennsylvania-built Rabbit Pickup (also referred to as the Caddy) retired in 1983. It is a completely different story throughout the pond: The second-generation Amarok made its debut earlier in 2022 with Ford Ranger-sourced bones, a extra car-like inside, and an obtainable 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged diesel engine.

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