VW Plans Pickup Truck for U.S. Market: ReportVolkswagen"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."Pickup trucks and SUVs are far and away the breadwinner body styles in the North American market, and Volkswagen wants a bigger share of the pot, according to a new report from Reuters that claims the automaker is planning to introduce a pickup built in the United States and made in no small part for that market.The Volkswagen Group is in the midst of a significant financial restructuring, with tens of thousands of jobs and dozens of vehicles at risk, and a new U.S. market strategy is one key to its future success. And a U.S.-focused Volkswagen pickup truck is reportedly part of the plan, according to a source reportedly from VW who told Reuters earlier this week. But don't get out your wallet just yet, as the pickup model—which will reportedly be built in the U.S.A., presumably at the Chattanooga factory that now has added capacity after the decision to cease building ID.4 EVs there—isn't expected to hit North American markets until the end of the decade.picture alliance - Getty ImagesVolkswagen has already been selling a pickup truck, the Amarok (pictured at top in design sketch form), in the European, Australian, African, and Latin American markets since 2010. The German automaker has never sold a proper truck in the States (though it did offer a pickup bed-equipped Golf in the 1980s), but company executives see promise in the margins of the ever-popular body style. Thomas Schaffer, head of the Volkswagen brand, particularly believes in the importance of the pickup truck for Volkswagen's future solvency, according to Reuters.AdvertisementAdvertisementThis isn't the first time Volkswagen executives have teased a pickup truck for the States. Dr. Kjell Gruner, then the president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, emphasized earlier this year that the automaker was looking into pickup trucks. Previous reports focused on Volkswagen bringing a mid-size pickup to the U.S., but Gruner explained that the primary consideration in their development process was market size.Volkswagen"Of course we look at that, you know, that C [segment] pickup or B [segment] pickup, etc., and we look at how those segments are developing. And I wouldn't want to rule it out at all," Gruner said to CarBuzz in April.Now, Marco Schubert, a member of Volkswagen's board of management and former head of sales at Audi, is being sent to the U.S. to replace Gruner as part of the automaker's broader transformation. It's not immediately clear if Volkswagen will develop the truck from the ground up, or partner with another automaker. If Volkswagen does partner with another automaker, Ford is a possible choice; Volkswagen currently shares its MEB electric vehicle platform with Ford in Europe, while the Amarok shares its platform with the Ford Ranger. Either way, Volkswagen and truck enthusiasts alike should be prepared for a German-made pickup on U.S. streets by the end of 2030.You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
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