Volkswagen has promised the new Amarok will be clearly differentiated from the next-generation Ford Ranger on which it will be based.
The second-generation Amarok will be produced alongside the next Ranger at Ford’s assembly plant in Silverton, South Africa, from 2022. Signed agreements between the two firms include the production of “a medium pickup truck engineered and built by Ford, for sale by Volkswagen as the Amarok starting in 2022”.
VW in Australia, however, is confident the new Amarok won’t suffer the same fate as the Mercedes-Benz X-Class, which was based on the Nissan Navara but went out of production earlier in 2020 after flagging sales.
Michael Bartsch, Volkswagen Group Australia managing director, suggested to media outlets such as motoring.com.au the next-gen Amarok would be more than just a rebadged Ranger.
“The short story is that it will not be the same mistake that Mercedes-Benz and Nissan made,” he said.
“When the initial project was launched in this co-operation between Ford and Volkswagen, there were some discussions in the infant stage of the project,” Bartsch explained, adding VW had “made it very clear what the consumer expectations” were and that there would have to be “clear and genuine differentiation between the two beyond the bad old days of ‘badge engineering’.”
“We move forward with full confidence that there will be a Ford product and there will be a Volkswagen product,” he said.
Ryan Davies, Volkswagen Australia commercial vehicles director, described the German firm as an “integrated partner” in the process.
“Ford [is] the lead partner so in terms of what we can steer comes down to the elements within our control. We’re not going to be able to give a full summary of the specs of the car at this point in time. It’s more than just design involvement. We’re an integrated partner in this process,” Davies said, according to motoring.com.au.
Volkswagen wouldn’t, however, be drawn on whether or not the next-gen Amarok would employ Ford powertrains.
