Volkswagen teases Ford Ranger-based Amarok

Volkswagen has revealed a design sketch of what its next Amarok ute might look like. Shown at a recent in-house conference, the artwork provides a hyper-exaggerated, sneak peek of what we might expect the Ford-based 1-tonner to look like when it appears in showrooms next year.

It was already known that the next-generation Amarok will be built on a platform shared with the next-gen Ford Ranger although how much of the new vehicle will be VW and how much will remain Ford is yet to be seen.

The sketch does show that the Amarok’s boxy wheel arches remain as does the full-width grille that is a staple of current VW models. Vehicle designers have wild minds and these sketches usually tell us more of what they would like, not what the engineers and marketeers will ultimately give us.

Thus you can forget about the oversized aggressive off-road tyres, long-travel suspension and ungainly bonnet scoops as seen in the drawing, some of which we will be happy to go without.

We already have a pretty good idea of what the new Ranger will look like thanks to images of a prototype gained by Wheels Magazine last year. This was snapped in Melbourne and is said to be the real deal.

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Picture: Here is the next-gen Ranger before you are supposed to see it, courtesy of our sister publication Wheels

On paper, the product of a Ford and VW amalgamation should be a good thing. The current PX Ford Ranger is Australia’s best-selling 4x4 and is popular around the globe while the aging Amarok remains the best driving ute in its class.

With the demise of the Mercedes-Benz X350d it also remains the only V6 diesel-powered ute in the category and the most powerful. Let’s hope some of those VW power plants make their way in to the next Amarok and it isn’t just a rebadging exercise.

We expect the next-gen Amarok to be revealed sometime next year possibly as a 2022 model but not until the covers come off the new Ranger sometime before that.