It’s only a sketch, so it’s highly unlikely the actual next-generation Amarok will look anywhere near this aggressive.
Shown briefly last night at Volkswagen’s annual general meeting, the 2022 Volkswagen Amarok flashed up in the background while VW boss, Herbert Diess, said the Amarok would be the first cab off the rank in its collaboration with Ford. In January last year (2019), the two brands (Ford and Volkswagen) announced they would collaborate on the development of new vehicles.
“Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has taken a major strategic step by establishing its cooperation with Ford. The successor to the Amarok will be one of the first fruits of this collaboration,” Diess said.
The intention is that Ford will take the lead on the development of pickups, this means the next-generation Amarok you see here will be built on the same T7 platform as the Ford Ranger. Indeed, they’ll be twins under the skin.
Details are still very thin on what we can expect but the sketch shows (and bear in mind these things are notoriously unreliable) the next-generation Amarok will get a broad, full-width grille with squint-similarities to the Touareg while the flanks bear resemblance to the VW Atlas SUV. In fact, there’s a lot of the now-dead VW Tanouk pickup in the look of this sketch.
The next question to be asked, is where would these things come from? There’s suggestion, like the Ford Ranger, they could be built at Ford’s Thailand factory. In terms of drivetrains, we’re not sure, but you’d think Ford would be mad not to try and get the Amarok’s V6 into the Ranger. Stay tuned.
