Mulling Pickups, Volkswagen Thinks Smaller… and Long-term

No one wants to fail, and certainly no one wants to be handed a steep bill for their failure. With that in mind, Volkswagen is leaning towards the smaller of the two potential pickups it’s foisted upon American auto show goers in recent years.

That means you’re far less likely to see a Tanoak at your local dealer, and much more likely to see a Tarok taking its place. Or, equally as likely, you’ll see nothing at all.

This is according to Volkswagen’s vice president of product marketing and strategy, Hein Schafer, who told Autoblog that matching the low production volume of the Honda Ridgeline with an Atlas-based midsizer is not something VW brass have much enthusiasm for.

The development dollars needed to convert the midsize CUV into the longer-wheelbase Tanoak (shown in New York in concept form in 2018) would likely scuttle the project on the drawing board. VW said that same year that significant overseas volume would be necessary to make the project a reality.

It’s no wonder that the automaker then teased the Tarok a year later. Bound for production (and the South American market) at the time, the Tarok is less pickup, more CUV-with-a-bed. A four-foot one, at that. It borrows the Atlas’ MQB platform and retains the CUV’s wheelbase, lowering development costs.

While Schafer said both vehicles garnered considerable enthusiasm from showgoers, the automaker is much more likely to go the smaller route. He also envisions a compact, unibody pickup based on a small CUV bound for America from a Mexican factory, claiming a model like that could attract buyers not interested in larger, midsize pickup offerings. With the Hyundai Santa Cruz on the way and Ford getting into the small truck game, an entry from VW would make sense.

Whatever VW comes up with, it almost certainly won’t arrive soon. Volkswagen of America’s chief operating officer, Johan de Nysschen, unenthusiastically told Motor Trend at last week’s Chicago Auto Show that any such product is at least 5 years out. Even then, he’d prefer to see an EV model based on the company’s MEB electric architecture.

[Image: Volkswagen]