Car design influences attach easily to new ute

FURTHER evidence of Volkswagen’s intention to ensure the next Amarok has minimal styling association with its Ford under-the-skin twin has surfaced.

Due for international launch later this year, and expected to show in New Zealand in 2023, the second-generation Amarok has been jointly developed as part of an agreement between VW and the Blue Oval.

The pre-production sketches here are the latest to come from Wolfsburg and the first to provide an undisrupted look at the vehicle's whole exterior.

Comparison with the next-generation Ford Ranger is possible as that model has already been fully revealed in its mainstream doublecab format ahead of local availability from mid-year.

From the look of it, the vehicles might well share the same mid-section – perhaps with doors being interchangeable – but the panels are otherwise bespoke.

Ford has led this project and provided the platform and running gear, but good news for VW fans is that the ingredients of  a grunty V6 turbodiesel married to a sophisticated full-time all-wheel-drive system – indication that elements keeping the current Volkswagen Amarok in high regard here – will continue. 

However, though it is also a 3.0-litre, the new engine is from the Ford F-150. In that model it creates 186kW – so, 4kW than the current Amarok’s VW-developed unit – but more torque, a stonking 596Nm.  

Ford has another V6 coming to the boil, likely exclusively limited to the Ranger Raptor, whose international on-line unveiling occurs tomorrow night, at 8pm NZ time. 

There’s conjecture Raptor will be powered by a turbocharged V6 petrol engine, rather than the twin-turbo 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel serving the current model. The hot choice is the 3.0-litre 298kW unit fitted to Ford’s North America-restricted Bronco Raptor, conceivably married to a 10-speed automatic gearbox and a four-wheel drive system. 

With the general-issue Amarok, VW has indicated that, depending on the options chosen, power will either be permanently sent to all four wheels via a 10-speed auto or selectively through a five- or six-speed manual gearbox.

The Amarok’s design appears to incorporate design cues seen on the latest VW passenger models. The front-end, for instance, gets a familiar familial headlight as well as an LED light-bar similar to that found on the Golf.

In profile, the wheel arches are big, boxy and pronounced, on some versions being more extensively clad in black plastic for greater protection from knocks and bumps. 

At the rear, big ‘Amarok’ lettering adorns the rear tailgate.

The model has more ground clearance than the current offer and is set to be bigger than the current model with the body not just wider, but longer too, growing by 10 centimetres to 5.35 metres in overall length, according to overseas’ reports.

Volkswagen stresses that the load bed will, as before, be spacious enough to accommodate a Euro-pallet and that the increase in length promises more legroom in the rear seats.

It’s expected the Amarok will achieve Ranger’s interior architecture, with the VWs therefore likely receiving 10.1-inch and 12.0-inch portrait-aspect infotainment screens.