Volkswagen rolled out a heavily camouflaged prototype of its all-new Amarok for South America. Teased in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the newcomer is due to hit dealer lots and showrooms next year with fresh styling and more power than any other Amarok before it.
While the camouflaged vehicle keeps the final sheet metal under wraps, Volkswagen established that electrification is on the menu. The most crucial technical story behind this model obviously lies beneath the skin. Unlike the Ford Ranger-derived Amarok, the South American iteration may be taking a different evolutionary path.
Volkswagen’s media release makes no mention of the platform’s origin. Motor1 Brazil suggests that Germany’s largest automaker has leveraged its joint venture with SAIC to supply a ladder-frame setup derived from the Maxus Interstellar X, allowing for native electrification support. Be it fully electric or plug-in hybrid, this partnership does make sense.
Looking at the bigger picture, it also makes plenty of sense to collaborate with Chinese rather than Western automakers for all things electrification. Legacy brands are being squeezed by Chinese newcomers in Europe, partly due to more interesting electrified solutions and more competitive pricing than Western alternatives.
Rather than wrapping the prototype in black-and-white geometric swaths, Volkswagen’s regional design team penned a custom pattern celebrating the diverse topography and culture of South America. The wrap includes artistic renders of Mount Fitz Roy, Iguacu Falls, Amazonian water lilies, the Nazca Lines of Peru, the Copacabana boardwalk motif, and Easter Island’s Moai statues.
Photo: Volkswagen
Intertwined among these geographical landmarks are traditional countryside symbols, including cacti, boots, cowboy hats, cattle, and some topographic contour lines here and there. Select graphic motifs embedded within the pattern will carry over into production as Easter eggs.
The visual cues beneath the wrap reveal a horizontal and tall hood line, a very bold vertical fascia, split lighting up front, vertical taillights, and functional side steps integrated into the rear bumper to simplify cargo access. Volkswagen‘s next Amarok mid-size pickup truck is part of a $3.6 billion investment package earmarked for South America.
Part of the investment is going toward modernizing the General Pacheco industrial complex in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which has been the manufacturing home of the South American-market Amarok since 2010. Over the past 16 years, the plant has produced more than 800,000 units, of which more than 465,000 have been exported globally.
The new capital infusion upgrades the facility’s manufacturing processes and tooling to support advanced electrification. The Amarok for South America is a torque monster in 3.0-liter TDI V6 form, but Motor1 Brazil indicates that even more twist is coming under the “800 TSI” badge. As implied, that means turbo gasoline muscle instead of a diesel-drinking engine.
800 Newton-meters can be read as 590 pound-feet, and the rumored PHEV powertrain could be good for more than 470 ps (464 hp). Entry-level commercial variants are understood to utilize a four-pot turbo diesel with a displacement of 2.5 liters, outputting roughly 220 hoses and 520 Nm (384 lb-ft) in optimal conditions.