Volkswagen Amarok SUV Prototype 2011: Why the Seven-Seat Fortuner Rival Was Never Built

© volkswagen-newsroom.com

A Volkswagen Amarok SUV discovered in Germany has turned out to be no design mock-up, but a functional seven-seat prototype from 2011. The vehicle was built on the first Amarok’s chassis, keeping its front end and cabin, but replacing the load bed with a closed body featuring a third row of seats. A production version could have rivaled the Toyota Fortuner, whose new generation Toyota is now readying for launch, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Chevrolet Trailblazer and Ford Everest.

The most unusual part is the tailgate: the door can be lifted entirely upward, swung open to the side, or opened as just the rear glass. The cabin features light brown leather, heated front seats and rear Isofix mounts — unusually rich equipment for an early-2010s Amarok.

The project wasn’t shelved for lack of a finished vehicle. In Europe, the pickup was classified as a commercial vehicle, while a seven-seat SUV would have needed passenger-car certification. The two-liter diesels used at the time met commercial-vehicle emissions standards but ran into trouble under passenger-car certification.

Production was considered in Argentina, where the Amarok was built. But by 2014, domestic taxes threatened to push the SUV into the luxury-car bracket and make it uncompetitive. After that, the project was shelved for good.

The irony is that the market later proved the concept viable: the Fortuner, Everest and Trailblazer remain in demand as passenger-car relatives of pickups. The Amarok itself, by contrast, switched to Ford Ranger underpinnings for its second generation — SPEEDME.RU previously covered the platform, engines and all-wheel-drive system of today’s pickup.

In theory, Volkswagen could build its own take on the Ford Everest, but there are no production plans for such a vehicle. What’s more, as reported earlier, the current Amarok will go without hybrid or electric versions until the next generation arrives.

The rediscovered prototype shows Volkswagen came close to entering the segment of body-on-frame seven-seat SUVs. What stopped it wasn’t engineering, but the cost of meeting different markets’ requirements.