The team at MotorTrend magazine says it had an interesting chat with Jonathan Browning, the CEO of VW’s American side of the company, on the sidelines of the Los Angeles motor show regarding the brand’s Amarok truck.
VW’s exec revealed that the German carmaker is definitely interested in bringing its Amarok over to the states, but is currently not doing so because of a hefty 25 percent tariff imposed by the US on imported pickup trucks (the so-called Chicken Tax) ; the measure also applies to other related commodities such as potato starch and brandy…
The report further reads that this measure may have caused pickup prices to sit at an artificially high level and allowed the local manufacturers free reign on the market with no overseas competition.
The Amarok, which in Europe is powered by two versions of the same two-liter diesel engine and is deemed very competent and car-like in its road behavior, would definitely be a contender for the new Chevy Colorado in US spec and other established models in its size range.
VW could bypass the tax if, like Ford with their new Transit range, imports the Amarok as a passenger vehicle, though in this case, it’s quite a bit harder to get a convincing case going for it. Currently there are no official plans in that direction, but if the tariffs are dropped (and that’s a possibility with the proposed freed trade agreement between the EU and the US), a reconsideration of that vision is definitely in order, according to a statement by Browning.
To brush up your knowledge of the truck, we’ve added two video reviews of the Amarok below.
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO