Ford & Volkswagen Working On Midsize Electric Pickup Truck
Volkswagen and Ford are jointly developing a midsize electric pickup truck. Most US customers don’t know this, but Volkswagen makes a pickup truck called the Amarok that it doesn’t sell in America because there is no demand for it [just as there is no demand for the ID.3 because it is a hatchback and everyone knows Americans hate hatchbacks].
Until recently, the Amarok was built at the Volkswagen commercial vehicle factory in Hannover, Germany, but now it is produced in Argentina. The next generation of the truck has been developed jointly by Ford and Volkswagen in South Africa, where it will be manufactured. The new truck is expected to be unveiled in June and go on sale before the end of this year.
Volkswagen board member Lars Krause tells Electrive the new Amarok will first appear with gasoline engines, but a battery-electric version in in the works. When the electric truck will appear was not clarified. Ford and Volkswagen are known to be collaborating on a number of vehicles that will use the German company’s MEB platform for battery-electric vehicles.
The new Amarok will be built on a ladder frame with a solid rear axle and independent front suspension — which is pretty much how trucks have been built since the Truman administration. The Ford and Volkswagen versions won’t look the same, but will be virtually identical beneath the sheet metal. Both will have a wheelbase of 3.27 meters (129 inches), a load capacity of 1.2 metric tons (2650 pounds), and towing capacity of 3.5 metric tons (7700 pounds). To put that in some perspective, the shortest wheelbase available for a 2022 Ford F-150 is 122 inches and the longest is 163 inches.
According to TechCrunch, Ford CEO Jim Farley said during a ceremony celebrating the beginning of production for the F-150 Lightning that Ford will build a second electric pickup truck at its new Blue Oval factory in Tennessee. Farley offered no further details, so we don’t know when it will be available or whether it is related to the truck Ford and Volkswagen are working on together, or a separate project.
It could be a battery-electric version of the new Maverick hybrid midsize pickup our colleague Jo Borras reported on recently. That truck has a wheelbase of 121 inches — 8 inches shorter than the Ford/VW product — so maybe they aren’t the same vehicle? We just don’t have enough information to say for sure right now, but wheelbases can be shortened or lengthened as needed to suit market demands.
It seems unlikely Ford would invest the money to manufacture two midsize pickups that don’t share the same DNA. Then again, its collaboration with Volkswagen is focused primarily on vehicles for the European market. When we know more, you will know more.
Ford is intent on being a leader in the global market for electric trucks of all types and description. If in fact it is planning a midsize electric pickup truck for America, that would be a significant step forward for the EV revolution.
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