VW built a seven-seat, body-on-frame SUV prototype based on the first-generation Amarok.
It revisited the idea with sketches of a rugged SUV derived from the second-generation pickup truck.
VW confirms a third-generation Amarok is coming and an SUV sibling is under consideration.
It’s still baffling that the original Amarok never received the SUV treatment, as the pickup’s body-on-frame platform seemed to beg for a Ford Everest rival. As it turns out, Volkswagen did build one behind closed doors but ultimately decided to keep it to itself. Known internally as an “Amarok wagon,” the SUV version of the truck was left on the proverbial cutting room floor after failing to gain approval from the company’s higher-ups.
The interesting disclosure came from VW Commercial Vehicles boss Stefan Mecha in an interview with Australian magazine GoAuto. While the underpinnings for a “closed pickup” were readily available, it never got the green light because the company was concerned it wouldn’t sell well enough. Although internal projections showed it would’ve made sense in Australia, a single market wasn’t enough to make the project viable from a scalability perspective.
