VW Amarok Pick-up Teaser Site

VW have launched a teaser site for its upcoming Amarok pick-up truck (previously referred to as RPU / Robust Pick-Up). Images of the car are mosaic-ed at the moment. Full details of the Amarok will only be released during the Amarok's world premiere on December-15 2009. The Amarok's main production site will be in General Pacheco, Argentina. VW was reported to have invested USD340 million in adapting the production line to produce the Amarok. The Wolfsburg based German car maker currently controls 26% of the Argentinian car market, and is the dominant car maker in the Latin American region. The Argentinian plant will export the Amarok to Brazil, Germany, South Africa and Australia. No word yet on ASEAN region markets. The planned annual production volume is said to be 100,000 units.

The Amarok is said to break many new world records, among them - a 1,000km driving range on a single tank of fuel, thanks to VW's famed TDI common rail diesel engine. A hill start and hill descent assist feature will also be included (presumably only on the higher range variants). ABS with ESP and an optional "heavy duty leaf spring" that is able to maintain perfect control with a 1-tonne load is also available. VW claims the Amarok offers the widest load area in its class and "different all wheel drive" concepts for on-road and off-road driving. Presumably this means the AWD system offers a fully automatic 2WD-4WD selection, which also continuously vary the power split between front and rear axles depending on available traction. As I know, all pick-up trucks in the 1-tonne segment only offer part-time 4WD, with 3 selectable range (2WD for tarmac, 4WD Hi for off-road and 4WD Lo for "crawl" mode).

Unofficial sources speculate the engine line-up will be shared with VW's T5 Transporter / Caravelle, meaning a 4 or 5 cylinder TDI diesel engine mated to a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission. A DSG-box was considered but cannot be confirmed. Judging from the 1,000km between refueling claim, a 6-speed transmission is highly likely. A 4x2 version as well as single cab body style version is expected to be released around 10 to 12 months later (early-2011). A cab chassis body style will also be made, mainly for Australia's huge ute market.



VW have previously previewed the Amarok pick-up, thinly disguised as a concept car - the VW SAR (Search and Rescue) Pick-up Concept in the September 2008 Hanover IAA Commercial Vehicles Expo. The car looks pretty production like. Notice the SAR Concept was already adopting VW's new corporate grille that we have already seen in the new Polo and Golf models.


Looking at the dimensions of the SAR Concept, the SAR's 5.18 metres length and 1.9 metres width is slightly shorter than market leader Toyota HiLux's 5.25 metres length but is wider than the Hilux's 1.83 metres width.

Though it wears the VW badge, the Amarok is actually marketed under a different sub-brand of the VW Group - VW Commercial Vehicles (known in Germany as Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge, VWN). VWCV is an entirely separate division from VW passenger cars but in markets like Thailand and Singapore where VW have a very small presence, its Transporter, Caddy and Caravelle commercial vans are being sold from the same dealership as VW's passenger cars.

The word Amarok means "wolf" in the language of the Inuit, an indigenous people of the Artic. The Inuits are commonly mistaken by many as Eskimos. The use of the term Eskimo is considered disrespectful by natives of Canada and Greenland. The Canadian constitution recognises the Inuit as a distinctive group of Canadian aboriginals. VW also says the word "Amarok" can also mean "He who loves rocks." I just wondered why don't they just decide on one official explanation?

The Amarok is not VW's first pick-up truck. Back in 1989, VW sold a badge engineered version of the Toyota Hilux. The car was sold as the VW Taro. There are also rumours that a SUV version of the Amarok is also in the pipeline, codenamed Namib. But there is very little credible evidence to support this for now.

On this side of the world, it is the Hilux that still reigns supreme. In Thailand, ASEAN's capital of pick-up trucks, the Hilux commands 40% of the market share. There are no plans to assemble the Amarok in ASEAN as VW does not have any production facility here. Plus, VW's traditional German Tier-1 suppliers also have very limited production sites in this region. Correction - I have completely forgotten that VW has a new plant in Indonesia that is coming online around 2011. But there was no mention that the plant will produce anything other than Touran in the initial stages of the plants operations. So it is unlikely that we will see the Amarok making its debut in this region in the near future. But we also know that CEO Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn has set the ultimatum for his company to dethrone Toyota by 2018, don't count them out so soon. They need to be present in every single major car market to achieve their aim.

By the way, the VW name, its pronounced as "fox-wah-gen" and not "Vox-where-ghen." The character "v" is pronounced as "f" in German.