Volkswagen said its new Amarok pickup will be clearly different in design from the next Ford Ranger pickup it will be based on.
VW’s commercial vehicles division has released a sketch of the new pickup, which it will launch next year.
The design hints at a beefy, off-road performance version in line with the Raptor top-spec model of the current Ford Ranger.
The Amarok will be developed and built by Ford as part of a wider agreement between the two companies.
“It’s not going to be just a fantastic pickup. It’s going to be a genuine Volkswagen too — with clear DNA in both technology and design,” VW Commercial Vehicles CEO Carsten Intra said during the unit’s annual media conference on March 25.
The pickup will be “exactly what our customers would want,” Intra said.
Ford said in January that it will build the Amarok at its plant in Silvertown, South Africa, where it is investing $686 million to raise annual production capacity to 200,000 units from 168,000.
VW ended production of the Amarok at its Hanover plant in Germany last year. The factory is being retooled to build the ID Buzz, a modern, full-electric version of VW’s Microbus that became a 1960s icon, and flagship electric cars for Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
Ford and VW announced a strategic partnership in 2019. The tie-up also includes plans for Ford to engineer and build a new VW Transporter van alongside its next Transit Custom van, with production starting in 2023 in Turkey.
VW will build a new compact van for both companies based on the new VW Caddy, which went on sale at the end of last year. The Ford version will launch next year. VW’s plant in Poznan, Poland, will build both vans.
Ford is using VW’s MEB electric platform to build EVs at its plant in Cologne, Germany. Ford said last month that its passenger car fleet in Europe will become all-electric by 2030.
