Volkswagen wants to build more utes
The North American market is expected to get its own Volkswagen pickup for the first time in more than 40 years.
Volkswagen is making some big changes to its business model, but no one could have expected its latest announcement – it wants to make pickups for North American customers.
In announcing a broad future strategy earlier this week, Volkswagen said it will “pursue a dedicated North America strategy”, giving love to the market where it’s starting to be pushed down the sales charts.
“As part of this approach, the brand will explore opportunities in the highly popular body-on-frame B-segment, including robust SUVs and pick-up trucks, as a potential component of Volkswagen’s future product portfolio,” Volkswagen said in a press release.
No further details were announced and the wording of the statement raises more questions than it answers.
Traditionally the B-segment of vehicles are small and compact cars, almost all of which are based on monocoque chassis rather than a body-on-frame setup.
In the US, even the car-based Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz (based on the Ford Escape and Hyundai Santa Fe SUVs respectively) barely scratch the surface in the popularity stakes, being outsold comprehensively by mid-sized pickups.
Underpinned by body-on-frame chassis, the mid-sized segment is ever growing, and is largely dominated by the Toyota Tacoma, Chevrolet Colorado and Ford Ranger – the latter of which is also rebadged as a Volkswagen Amarok in Australia and other markets, though this is unlikely to ever reach the US.
Above this is the full-sized pickup market, consisting of the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Ram 1500 and Toyota Tundra, among others. Despite this being the largest share of the pickup market, Volkswagen won’t be making a pickup that big.
The answer for where Volkswagen may get its pickup from likely lies with Scout, the brand it is reviving in 2028 with a pair of body-on-frame vehicles, the Terra pickup and Traveler SUV.
Still, by that time it would be 10 years since Volkswagen last previewed a pickup concept, having shown off the Atlas Tanoak in 2018. The Atlas SUV is sold in the US as a monocoque vehicle, running on the same MQB platform as the Tiguan, among other Volkswagen Group products.
There’s no confirmation yet as to whether Volkswagen will go ahead with the plans, but it represents the first time in a while that it’s entertained the idea of a body-on-frame pickup for the market.
