Amarok ute is the ‘new premium’

VOLKSWAGEN Australia says its new-generation Amarok could offer premium SUV buyers a different take on the luxury-meets-leisure theme.

The brand is offering a five-model ute range, including a pair of flagship variants, the off-road-focused Panamericana (from $75,990 plus on-road costs) and road-ready Aventura model, which costs $79,990 +ORCs and rides on 21-inch wheels, has leather upholstery, and the choice of a turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine or a V6 turbo-diesel.

Data supplied by VW Australia suggests that buyers are willing to spend big bucks on their Amarok ute, too.

The percentage of buyers of high-grade Amaroks increased from 58 per cent in 2020, to 78 per cent in 2022. Furthermore, the current order bank – which is sitting at around 2000 pre-orders – suggests a strong skew towards the top-spec diesel versions, including the slightly more affordable Style grade with the V6 diesel engine.

That seems to align with the assertions of Albert Kirzinger, head of design at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, who told GoAuto the approach with the new-generation Amarok was to fill a gap in the market that was open for a premium commercial pick-up, but not one that was trying to be an SUV.

“What the new Amarok can do, it’s so easy to go off-road. I posted yesterday a photo of the new one, side-by-side with the Touareg,” he said.

“For me, it was really nice to see the two cars on the road, side-by-side, and I said, ‘okay, I think our pick-up is the new premium’.

“I think you can talk to customers – they want that power. And this is something new. We had a tremendous success with the existing one, with the V6, and even in big towns in Europe, as a status symbol.

“But now we’ve reached, really, to compete with such cars (as the Touareg). This is new. No-one (else) can do it.”

Mr Kirzinger pointed out that he didn’t want to make the new Amarok look too much like a car or SUV, and that it needed to shy away from that approach as it would have been too easy to achieve something as purposeful and masculine if the brand had.

“Even with that, and with its honest design, and this new way of understanding how to do a car that is not classical ‘automotive styling’, this is new. This is premium, in both ways – as a machine, and as a premium car, it’s nice – I’m really proud,” he said.

“Analysing what is happening after all those years, and we had the time. It was not an old car, the existing Amarok. So, we had our own positioning.”

Mr Kirzinger seemingly took a thinly veiled swipe at the Ford Ranger and Everest pairing, both of which look nearly identical from the front.

“It’s part of my work, and I said to myself that I want to find some new unknown territory,” he explained.

“Yes, there is a market demand to say, yes, okay, let’s do it more ‘automotive’, and let’s try to be somehow like an SUV, and… I believe it’s not the right way, because you can’t reach it, so why do it? And you do it because it’s the easy way.

“It’s okay to make such cars, but I believe I can do it better, I can do it my way.”

Volkswagen Australia commercial vehicles director, Ryan Davies, told GoAuto that while the brand would love to see an SUV take on the Amarok ute theme, a la the Everest, that the agreement between the brands did not allow for that kind of product to become a reality.

“Would I like to see it? Yes. Will we see it? No. It’s not on the radar for us. At the early stages of the collaboration, it wasn’t in scope – and it’s still not in scope,” he said.

“So, unfortunately that’s where we’re at, and we’ve just got to maximise what we’ve got with Amarok and get our slice of the (ute) market. It’s one-fifth of the total market in Australia.”

The new-generation VW Amarok range is also expected to offer more appeal for fleet ute buyers, too, with a stronger focus on aftersales and total cost of ownership, not to mention the improvements in the level of safety technology offered across the model range.

VW and performance garage Walkinshaw Automotive are set to team up on the new-generation model as well, further bolstering the range with more premium, high-end options for buyers.