Volkswagen shared an official peek at its 2022 Amarok, which the German carmaker will build with Ford’s help. I think it’s the angriest Amarok I’ve seen, and it looks like a fusion of an Amarok and the Ford Raptor.
While this new Amarok resembles the full-size F-150 Raptor in its design, its dimensions will be closer to — if not exactly the same as — those of the Ranger. The 2022 Amarok will share a platform with Ford’s midsize pickup.
This VW and Ford collaboration has been a long time coming. The two announced their partnership in 2019, and the primary focus of that union was electrification and automation. That didn’t mean, however, that the two carmakers would ignore other areas of overlap between their many divisions.
The announcement for the new Amarok comes from Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicles division, which isn’t a great surprise. You may notice that even just a peek at VW Mexico’s lineup doesn’t actually show the Amarok. There’s a hyperlink to VW Commercial, which will then land you at the Amarok’s page. I guess the Amarok isn’t what VW considers an everyday car for all markets.
There are some of these countries where the Amarok does make the normal lineup though, like Argentina, or Brazil or Chile. And Australia, too, where the 4X4 ’ute is very popular. So popular, in fact, that drivers in Oz have been more or less exposed to some gnarly Amarok special editions. That is to say, the new Amarok may look like a natural progression to drivers in the Outback, who have already seen Amarok models like the 580s or W580:
The 2022 Amarok has retained some of VW’s design in the front fascia, but it is very much a Ford take on that VW design. It’s a cool, tough truck and most of all, it’s the perfect size.
That’s what I think is so neat about this Amarok/Ranger fusion. If the Amarok retains its drivetrain, which has lately been a V6 turbocharged diesel, then that means this new Amarok may be a Ranger-sized pickup with an engine I would prefer over the twin-turbo V6 EcoBoost from the full-size Raptor. That’s awesome.
There’s no official word yet on the the ’22 Amarok’s drivetrain, and the VW/Ford collaboration could end up changing much more than just the styling. Please don’t do it, Ford. That V6 turbodiesel is the Amarok’s superpower.