If you’ve been hanging out to see the new-generation Volkswagen Amarok ute, you won’t have to wait much longer – the all-new second-gen VW pick-up truck is set to be revealed in July this year.
Volkswagen Commercial director, Ryan Davies, told CarsGuide the news at a recent event in Sydney – and he provided some juicy new information about the Amarok we’ll be getting in Australia.
“The global reveal of the new Amarok will happen just after mid-year, so in July, and we may see a couple of cars towards the end of year, but only enough to show the media and dealers perhaps. We won’t really get production vehicles arriving through until January or February 2023,” said Mr Davies.
Volkswagen Australia has offered the Amarok in dual-cab only form for years now, and that is likely to continue, according to Mr Davies – so don’t go expecting a $30K single-cab-chassis to rival the Isuzu D-Max SX or Toyota HiLux Workmate.
“All you need to do is look at the market. It’s dual-cab-centric. Single-cab has not been a big part for us since the launch of the Amarok, and we don’t expect it to be a big part. We will be focusing on dual-cab, and the iterations of dual-cab,” he said.
And dual-cab, high-spec models are the ones that have done the best business for VW Australia – so it makes sense that the company will continue to offer a punchy diesel V6 engine. Mr Davies said the current market share for Amarok V6 is 85 per cent V6 and 15 per cent four-cylinder.
“We have such a history with the V6 – we’re the only one on the market now that has it. We’ve got a lot of buyers out there that will be chomping at the bit to change over to a new V6, or even get the last of the current V6. We’ve got a bit of a cult following in the segment already, definitely more than Ford, that’s for sure.
“It just depends on the engine line-up we have at the end of the day. I think we’ll have a good cross-section of vehicle variants in all segments,” said Mr Davies.
However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any other changes to the range. Mr Davies indicated that a more work-focused cab-chassis ute could be offered alongside the pick-up version in the new-generation model – something that Ford is also set to offer with the new Ranger, which is a shared model with the second-gen Amarok.
“Cab-chassis is not really us ripping the tub off, it’s typically the customer taking the tub off. So we generally bring them in as dual-cab utes and then the customer will decide if they want to do a fit out or whatever.
“We may have a cab-chassis, we’re still going through that at the moment, whether we need to have a dedicated one, or if we just bring them in with a tub and let the custom do what they will. That keeps it simpler for ordering as well,” he said.
Keyword: 2023 Volkswagen Amarok reveal date confirmed! New Ford Ranger-based ute to be shown soon, and you won't have to wait long before seeing them in Australian showrooms