Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says - Ars Technica

Overview

Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says

There’s no evidence the truck will be a cheap EV truck, but what if it were?

Details

A US-made pickup truck by 2030 is part of Volkswagen Group’s plan to revive its American business. According to a Reuters report, entering this competitive but high-margin market, as well as the large SUV segment, is the path forward, since both are areas the automaker currently ignores.

The report is anonymously sourced, and VW declined to comment, so take the news with a pinch of salt. But it does make sense: Love it or hate it, the four-door pickup truck is the go-to for Americans who want one vehicle that can carry passengers and cargo that doesn’t need to be shielded from the elements. You might think a hatchback or a station wagon would be just as good or better, but that’s probably why you’re reading Ars Technica in the first place.

Tariffs and an antediluvian approach to emissions controls might make the US market a haven for vehicles that are uncompetitive or unsellable elsewhere, and the pickup truck market in the US will account for almost $200 billion in sales in 2026, with projections to continue growing each year, so one can certainly see merit in the idea. The global car might be dead, but that just means you need to develop cars for each region’s taste. And Americans really like pickup trucks.

Volkswagen has the Amarok midsize truck in some markets like South America, but not the US. A new one is under development and could be US-ready by 2030.

And getting its American operations back on track is important for VW Group. Last year was bad for the company’s bottom line, and 2026 looks to be more of the same, as sales fall in China and North America. VW Group executives want to streamline the company by closing factories and laying off workers by 2030 to make it more competitive, and the plan is supported by the Porsche family, which owns just under 32 percent of the company. But the closures and layoffs are vehemently opposed by the state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of VW Group, as well as the unions, which hold half of the seats on VW Group’s supervisory board.

Based on Reuters’ report, nothing is finalized, so there are no concrete details at this point. We have no idea what size pickup VW is considering, how much it might cost, or even whether it will be gas- or electric-powered. A few possibilities suggest themselves, though.

Firstly, VW could just start building the Amarok in the US. That’s a truck designed for South America, but Ford’s Ranger was designed in Australia for non-US markets, and it’s now on sale here, so that approach could work. That sure would be boring, though.

For a more considered alternative, there’s Scout, the new VW Group brand for premium off-road-focused pickups and SUVs. In Michigan, Scout is designing vehicles to be built in South Carolina, using a body-on-frame platform with either battery electric or range-extended powertrains. Those are slated to arrive in 2028. If VW decides to enter the full-size segment and compete against Ford’s F-150 and the other heavy hitters, a body-on-frame platform would be necessary to get the performance that the market expects.

Whether that can be done with profit margins high enough to justify the effort depends on the numbers, including whether a VW truck on the same platform would cannibalize too many Scout sales.

In the early 1980s, VW built Golf-based pickups locally to evade the chicken tax. The ID.4 is out of production at Chattanooga, but what about an ID-based pickup?

A more interesting alternative also involves platform sharing, but it shouldn’t steal any sales from Scout. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a ~

Developing its own low-cost electric truck from scratch by 2030 is a tall order. VW could build one using its MEB platform, as used by its mainstream brands; that’s what underpins the VW ID Buzz and ID.4. And the ID.4 recently ended production at VW’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, so it should have capacity for this putative pickup.

Basing it on MEB is one way to go, but what if VW decided to license a platform from another automaker? Like Ford.

In Europe, Ford does it the other way, borrowing the MEB platform to build electric Ford Capris and Ford Explorers. European Ford fans are as aghast at the misappropriation of the Capri name as ‘Merican Mustang fans were over the Mach-E’s moniker, but as a traveler from these shores, when I see one drive past in Spain, Germany, or the UK, I’m mostly just sad we don’t get them this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

So what if VW licensed Ford’s new Universal Electric Vehicle platform? For the last few years, a small team has been working independently of the rest of Ford to develop a lower-cost EV architecture from scratch.

Ford’s first EVs were technologically solid, but seemingly endless price hikes didn’t help the Mach-E or F-150 Lightning. Maybe trying to get EV adoption going in the US via the full-size pickup was the wrong approach. It’s certainly a huge segment of the market, and one that’s effectively limited to US OEMs or rivals willing to build those trucks locally. That’s thanks to a protectionist law with decades of staying power that should give companies still contemplating exporting cars from China to the US pause. But pickup buyers really, really care about specs, and if the sheet says your truck can’t tow as much as your buddy’s V8-powered pickup or that you’ll have to stop three times as often on the way to the lake with your boat, forget about it.

That’s why the electric F-150 replacement has been delayed in favor of something smaller and more affordable. That truck, the Fathom, is due next year, but perhaps VW could license its UEV platform for an electric truck of its own? That even raises the tantalizing possibility of exporting some back to Europe in bright yellow paint and Skoda badges—Felicia Fun EV, anyone?

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Key Takeaways

• Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says

• There’s no evidence the truck will be a cheap EV truck, but what if it were

• A US-made pickup truck by 2030 is part of Volkswagen Group’s plan to revive its American business

• The report is anonymously sourced, and VW declined to comment, so take the news with a pinch of salt

• Tariffs and an antediluvian approach to emissions controls might make the US market a haven for vehicles that are uncompetitive or unsellable elsewhere, and the pickup truck market in the US will account for almost $200 billion in sales in 2026, with projections to continue growing each year, so one can certainly see merit in the idea