Volkswagen is coming up with a completely new generation of its pick-up this year: the Amarok. For this, Volkswagen is joining forces with Ford, because the new Amarok shares its technical basis with the recently unveiled Ford Ranger. The new Ranger will eventually get a fierce Raptor outfit, which raises the question whether Volkswagen is breeding a comparable variant for the Amarok. That seems to be the case.
Volkswagen is reportedly investigating the possibilities for an ‘Amarok R’. That says the director of the Australian department of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to the Australian medium car guide. In Australia, Volkswagen is currently already supplying fierce Amaroks in collaboration with off-road specialist Walkinshaw. However, this is an aftermarket conversion. The new Ranger will eventually also be marketed as Raptor, traditionally equipped with rugged off-road tires, a higher ground clearance, special shock absorbers and a more powerful engine. Since the Ranger and the Amarok will soon share their technology, it is not inconceivable that Volkswagen will also come up with an extra fierce Amarok based on the upcoming Ranger Raptor.
Whether the rough ‘Amarok R’, as the variant could be called, will come and in which markets that would be, remains to be seen for a while. In any case, Volkswagen previously indicated that the new Amarok will simply get a 3.0 V6 TDI under the hood. However, it could also be that the Ranger Raptor is assigned the 406 hp 3.0 biturbo V6 from the Explorer ST and Volkswagen takes over that power source. Furthermore, the Amarok probably gets the same engines that Ford also spoons in the youngest Ranger. We will know more later this year, because the second generation Amarok will make its debut this summer and will be on the market at the end of the year. The Ranger is scheduled to be launched on the market at the beginning of 2023. The Ranger Raptor and a possible ‘Amarok R’ will probably follow later that year.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl