Wrapping will come off on 7 July
Ahead of its highly awaited world debut next week Thursday (7 July), Volkswagen has released yet another teaser video of the all-new Amarok, this time relating to the infotainment system.
While already shown twice before in December and January, the latest clip focuses on the physical switchgear located underneath the portrait-style infotainment system, which, like in its twin, the Ford Ranger, will come in two sizes; 10.1-inch and twelve-inches.
Despite the size similarity, the Amarok’s interior has been subtly tweaked in the form of redesigned air vents, a Volkswagen specific steering wheel and likely better materials.
As seen by the sketch images released in 2020 and last year, followed by another in February and then the pre-production depictions in April, the Amarok will be longer and narrower than the current model, and offer a towing capacity of up to 3 500 kg.
Set to ride on wheel sizes up to 21 inches, the newcomer, which Wolfsburg has stated will be different from the Ranger despite sharing the T6.2 platform, will have a choice of four initial trim levels; Life, Style, PanAmericana and Aventura, and in certain markets, a single cab for the first time since 2017.
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“The new Amarok is a much better pick-up than if Volkswagen had done it alone. The same goes for Ford: without our input, the new Ranger wouldn’t be so good,” Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Marketing Head, Lars Krause, told Britain’s Autocar in April.
Spied for the first time in September last year undergoing testing, the Amarok, whose platform also underpins the Everest and Ranger Raptor, will come with rear-wheel-drive as standard, as well as two four-wheel-drive systems; a part-time system with low range and a permanent setup similar to the current range-toping model.
As is known by now, global production will take place at Ford’s Silverton Plant outside Pretoria following the Blue Oval’s record R15.8-billion investment last year, though assembly will continue at the General Pacheco plant in Argentina for South America.
The localisation stretches further to the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha, which will assemble the 2.0-litre four-cylinder Panther and 3.0-litre V6 Lion turbodiesel engines following last year’s R600-million investment.
Replacing the current Volkswagen-sourced engines with the same displacement and turbo allocation, the single turbo Amarok will come in two states of tune; 110kW/350Nm and 125kW/405Nm, and 155kW/500Nm in the case of the bi-turbo.
In select European markets, the Volkswagen will offer the option of Ford’s 2.3 EcoBoost petrol that punches out 200kW/420Nm in the North American Ranger. Unlike that model though, electrification, rumoured since 2020, won’t be offered in the Amarok.
At the range’s sharp-end, the 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6, once sold under the Powerstroke moniker in the F-150, and internally known as the Lion engine, will replace the current Amarok’s 190kW/580Nm 3.0 TDI with outputs of 184kW/600Nm.
Unconfirmed speculation though is that the bent-six could potentially produce more grunt in order to not only better that of the Volkswagen unit, which sported an overboost function that increased power to 200 kW for a few seconds, but justify the Amarok’s likely price premium over the Ranger.
Depending on the engine, transmissions will comprise a six-speed manual or a revised version of the General Motors co-developed ten-speed automatic in place of the current eight-speed Tiptronic.
A no-go is the much rumoured Amarok R following Ford’s decision not to offload the blueprints for the Ranger Raptor to Wolfsburg.
Going on sale in South Africa from the first quarter of next year, the official launch on 7 July will take place on local soil and screened to other countries online.
