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Volkswagen planning new MQB pickup model – report

And there's talk of a Toyota TNGA ute as well


Volkswagen will reveal a US-market ‘unibody’ pickup truck concept at the New York motor show this week, according to well-placed sources speaking with industry title Automotive News.

Said to be a spin-off of the Atlas three-row crossover, the pickup concept will apparently be used to gauge customer response, with series production apparently a very real possibility – and soon.

Volkswagen doesn’t sell the body-on-frame Amarok in North America, giving it headaches in a region where pickup truck and SUV sales are dominating the landscape more than ever.

Pictured: The Toyota TNGA

For context, Ford expects just 14 per cent of its sales to be conventional passenger cars by 2020.

A softer MQB-based ‘lifestyle’ pickup truck would give VW a product to help turn around its battling US division, and would be the only such vehicle from a German car-maker there at present.

The news follows industry talk Toyota would spin-off a ‘light truck’ platform from its next generation of the TNGA modular architecture —its MQB equivalent.

This pair of softer utility vehicles join a pipeline also populated by the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which has been mooted for production ever since the US concept appeared way back in 2015, and the existing Honda Ridgeline.

The growing platform modularity in the world of auto means left- and right-hand drive production are more economically feasible as a rule, meaning we may soon see some car-like utes to spiritually replace the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon versions.

We’re in no doubt that demand is very much there, given the rampant demand for pickups here already.

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