Volkswagen is looking into making an all-electric pickup truck in America, for America, signaling the German brand’s first foray into the segment.
Speaking with Autoblog at the Chicago Auto Show, VW officials said they first wanted to complete the lineup of electric vehicles and that the next thing the company has in its sight is a pickup truck, according to Hein Scafer, senior vice president of product marketing and strategy at Volkswagen.
And while more decisions about this idea will be made sometime in the second half of the year, it looks like VW’s CEO of America, Pablo Di Si, already knows what will power the brand’s possible pickup. “It would not be a combustion,” Di Si said for Autoblog. "Let me define – electrified. It can be electric. It can be a plug-in. It cannot be a combustion engine. That's for sure.”
As for the size and segment, VW’s CEO says they haven’t decided yet, but that they have several platforms available that can be leveraged to get the vehicle into production sooner rather than later, like the Atlas and Taos platforms. But Pablo Di Si goes on to say that they also have other platforms that haven’t been launched yet, which leads me to believe that, if Volkswagen decides to go through with its all-electric pickup, it will be based on the upcoming Scout platform.
That’s an all-new platform developed specifically for all-electric applications, while the Atlas and Taos are based on VW’s MQB Platform, which is designed for internal combustion engine vehicles with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, so modifying it for an EV application wouldn’t make much sense.
Adding to this theory is the rumor that says Audi will launch an all-electric rugged 4x4 based on the same Scout platform, rivaling the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQG and Land Rover Defender EV. And if we know something about the Volkswagen Group, it’s that it likes to spread out its available resources across as many brands as possible.
What’s clear though is that the proposed EV pickup will be developed in the United States. “The important thing is that … the vehicle is developed in the region for the region. So it cannot be a development from Europe, or Asia and brought here. They need to be done with clinics in the U.S.,” said VW’s new CEO of America for Autoblog.
What’s your take on this: do you think Volkswagen will have a shot at taking a piece of the sweet American pickup truck market pie? Let us know in the comments below.
