After presenting the new Atlas in North America last fall, Volkswagen are now toying around with the idea of transforming it into a pickup truck.
Speaking to CarBuzz at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show, VW of America’s chief engineering officer, Matthias Erb, reportedly confirmed the brand’s interest for such a vehicle. Of course, there’s a big distance between being interested and actually building one, with Erb admitting that it’s a very competitive category in the States.
“More than 80 percent of trucks in the US are full-size,” he said. “There are three main automakers who greatly protect this segment: Ford, GM and Ram. They’re not just about to let someone else invade their turf“.
Erb added that while they haven’t completely ruled it out yet, “body-on-frame trucks are a protected market”, which mean a unibody construction similar to the Honda Pilot could be a more pragmatic step for VW.
Because of the Chicken Tax, such a vehicle would have to be assembled locally, so if it does get green lighted, then the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant would be responsible for putting it together.
In the meantime, the regular Volkswagen Atlas SUV is getting ready to go on sale in the United States, with the basic version kicking off from around $30,000, while the top-of-the-line SEL Premium costing about $48,000. Initially, VW will offer it with a 238 horsepower 2.0-liter turbo’d four, and a 280 HP 3.6-liter six-cylinder, mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox.
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