If VW Makes a Pickup Truck for America, It’ll Probably Be Electric

Don’t expect a pickup from Volkswagen in the U.S. any time soon. If and when the time comes, however, it makes more sense to make it an electric truck, said Johan de Nysschen, chief operating officer of VW of America.

There are no plans for a pickup for North America in the short term. “It is not even on the discussion set for North America for the next five years,” de Nysschen told MotorTrend in an interview at the 2020 Chicago Auto Show. A business plan for a U.S. pickup hasn’t been assembled nor has a proposal to greenlight such a project been sent to the board. In short, with so many more crucial projects in the works, a pickup for the U.S. is simply not a priority, especially in Wolfsburg where final decisions on where to invest globally are made.

Should a pickup become a priority, electrification would help it stand out in the marketplace, especially in North America where Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, and Ram dominate the truck market. “The door is not open for a conventional approach,” de Nysschen said. “Electrification represents a new starting point for everyone.” The Detroit-based automakers are working on electric pickups—the GMC Hummer was just announced—as are Rivian and Tesla.

VW has previously teased possible pickups for America. It created the Tanoak concept based on the Atlas SUV, but the problem with bringing this model to market is the cost of using the Atlas as the basis for a lower-priced vehicle. Volkswagen’s partnership with Ford includes an agreement for the German automaker to use Ford’s next-generation Ranger pickup platform to make trucks for use in other parts of the world. Some at VW expressed interest in using it to make a version for the U.S. as well, but this part of the deal has been more sensitive. And there is the Tarok, a small car-based pickup sold in South America but would create a new segment in the U.S.

But now de Nysschen says with plans for a North American pickup so far in the future, he would prefer to see VW introduce an electric truck. That would dovetail with the massive investment VW is making in electric vehicles and the economies of scale that can be derived from having millions of vehicles coming from its MEB electric-vehicle platform. That architecture is scalable to make all shapes and sizes of cars, utility vehicles, and trucks.

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