Volkswagen divulged to Autoblog and a compact team of media at the Chicago Automobile Present right now that it is hunting into earning a pickup truck. This isn’t the initially time in recent record VW has threatened to greenlight a pickup — the company was chatting a related tune again in 2019 when it unveiled the Tarok Strategy, but absolutely nothing at any time materialized. Perhaps issues will be distinct this time?
“So, the 1st matter we wanted to do was make absolutely sure we round out the electrical automobile SUV portfolio,” Hein Scafer, SVP of Products Advertising and System started off. “And the upcoming request I think billed on to the board is of training course we want a pickup truck. Remember to speak. Let’s get it. Let’s get a pencil into it man.”
VW stated it will be building conclusions in the second 50 percent of the yr, so probably there could be some much more news out later on in 2023. What kind would this pickup just take? It’s still up in the air, but VW’s new CEO of America presented some clarifications.
“It would not be a combustion,” Pablo Di Si, VW CEO of The united states stated. “Permit me define, electrified. It can be electric powered. It can be a plug-in. It are unable to be a combustion motor. That is for absolutely sure.”
So we’re all on the similar web page, Di Si is primarily declaring that VW would hardly ever place out a purely combustion motor pickup truck. In its place, it would be either a plug-in hybrid or a purely electric powered truck. For now, VW is not committing to both direction. One more detail that Di Si made extremely obvious is that it will not have just about anything to do with the electric pickup that Scout has now announced — this would be a VW task.
The sizing of the car is partly in issue, but it goes without having saying that VW is not heading to attempt and just take on the full-dimension pickup phase wherever the F-150, Silverado and Ram 1500 reign supreme.
“What phase? Hey, we’re however participating in all over,” Di Si explained. “Yeah, we have not decided on the segments. It truly is a different dilemma. It depends on the platform as perfectly. Depending on the system you have is how considerably room you happen to be heading to have. We are open up to this, but the only thing that it will not be is a gasoline or diesel motor.”
If VW decides the compact pickup section is wherever it would like to engage in, which is the most probably state of affairs, it will have the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick to contend with. Di Si laid out a several various platforms it may well use, and they’re all unibody.
“So naturally we require to leverage present platforms inside VW, possessing stated that we’re heading to be seeking at all options,” Di Si stated. “You have the Atlas platform, we have the Taos system. You have other platforms that we have not launched however. So the essential detail is that … the auto is made in the region for the region. So it can not be a enhancement from Europe, or Asia and introduced below. They want to be carried out with clinics in the U.S.”
VW mentioned that vehicles it designed specifically for the U.S. marketplace execute better right here for the reason that of it. Who would’ve thought? Like all much-achieving designs like this, consider this information with a grain of salt. VW plainly has some thoughts on pickups, but the merchandise is purely theoretical at this stage.
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