Over two successive springs and with two successive CEOs, Volkswagen just a few years in the past confirmed its sellers and loyalists idea unibody pickups that teased a attainable reentry right into a section the place it has lengthy been absent.
However as opponents start to roll out their very own small life-style pickups, such because the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, it seems a evident white house in VW’s U.S. lineup — and maybe its finest hope of hitting its long-term market share aspirations — will stay unfilled, no less than for now.
Duncan Movassaghi, government vp for gross sales and advertising and marketing for the VW model in North America, says following others into the gasoline-powered small pickup house is now not an choice. However he did go away the door open a crack for a possible future electrical automobile with a mattress.
“Our precedence throughout the Volkswagen model is to maintain our present [internal combustion engine-based] automobiles aggressive” and to increase the battery- electrical automobile lineup, Movassaghi advised Automotive Information. “Investing right now into a distinct segment ICE [compact pickup] section wouldn’t make sense for us. As we remodel our lineup to BEV, an electrical pickup may for positive be an choice.”
VW sellers have lengthy sought a pickup, a want model leaders in Virginia have been wrestling with for a number of years. Exterior the U.S., the Amarok has been a confirmed participant amongst compact pickups for a era whereas being the one body-on-frame light-duty automobile within the large world model’s entire portfolio. The following-generation Amarok will likely be primarily based on the Ford Ranger — a part of the automakers’ ongoing collaboration — however will stay forbidden fruit in North America.
“VW continues to be in rebuilding mode from Dieselgate, so they should give attention to constructing out automobiles that they’ve,” mentioned Michelle Krebs, government analyst at Autotrader. The German model continues to be a distinct segment participant within the U.S., regardless of its aspirations to return to a 5 p.c share right here. Within the first quarter, its U.S. market share stood at 2.3 p.c.
Krebs predicted compact pickups “will do properly. However for VW, bringing a small electrical pickup truck to the market may make sense sooner or later. We all know from our survey work that there’s some curiosity in electrical pickups, and a small EV pickup may make sense, particularly for younger California consumers.”
VW has a historical past within the U.S. with small unibody pickups, although its success was restricted. Greater than 4 many years in the past, the model used its then-popular Rabbit as the idea for a small bedded automobile it merely referred to as the Pickup. The front-wheel-drive truck was constructed within the U.S., had a single row of seating and a 6-foot mattress, and was equivalent to the Rabbit from the doorways ahead. From 1979 to 1983, the model offered simply 77,512 Pickups within the U.S., although the design lived on elsewhere all over the world for 20 extra years.
In 2018, below then-North American chief Hinrich Woebcken, the model confirmed an Atlas-based idea on the New York auto present referred to as the Tanoak, which was roughly equal in measurement to a Honda Ridgeline midsize pickup. Woebcken and the model admitted there have been no rapid plans to supply the unibody pickup, however he mentioned the idea “reveals that we’re fascinated by what can also be attainable, sometime sooner or later, on this market.”
A yr later, below new VW Group of America CEO Scott Keogh, it confirmed the smaller Tarok idea in New York. The Tarok, just like the Tanoak, was constructed on the automaker’s MQB platform. It had two full rows of seating and a small, squarish mattress with an progressive drop wall and folding seats that made for a mattress size of greater than 8 toes with the tailgate down. The Tarok is now on sale in South America.
Karl Brauer, government analyst at iSeeCars.com, says VW is having extra success in constructing its crossover lineup. He mentioned introducing a pickup just like the Tarok or Tanoak ideas most likely proved too nice a threat.
“Pickups are a totally unproven entity for them,” Brauer mentioned. “They may do a truck, and it most likely would not crash and burn, however given the funding and assets, investing into one other [crossover] was most likely safer.”
Keogh, talking to Automotive Information in 2019 concerning the Tarok, mentioned: “The query we’ve got is, may one thing like this make sense, with modifications, within the U.S. market? The speculation is kind of easy: It is an A-segment-sized automobile. There is not any pickup truck within the U.S. market that’s fairly that measurement in any respect.”
It is a idea each Ford and Hyundai — however not VW — at the moment are prepared to discover.