While touted as being nothing but a study to gauge publication and media reaction, the Tanoak, aside from the Honda Ridgeline, rates as one of the few pick-ups to employ a unibody layout, in this case, Volkswagen’s flexible MQB architecture.
As it is not expected to debut in South Africa when put into production in being classified as an American market focused model, attention has turned to the Amarok, which aside from a number of facelifts and addition of the 3.0 TDI engine last year, has been around globally since 2010.
Although Volkswagen has not divulged any details regarding a second generation model, Russian render artist, Aksyonov Nikita, has released a single image depicting what the next Amarok could look like.
Despite keeping the side profile and the rear unchanged from the current model, the front-end borrows heavily from the new Touareg with the same LED headlights, grille albeit without the chrome slats, slimmer mirrors, side vent on the door and similarly designed alloy wheels.
The interior is open to speculation and will likely feature details derived from the Touareg and maybe even the Passat, while the engine line-up will be a mix of four-and six-cylinder oil burners connected to a six-speed manual or eight-speed Tiptronic gearbox.
With a more powerful 190 kW 3.0 TDI model due to be added to the local Amarok range next year though, a second generation will likely only become available towards the end of 2019 or in early 2020.
