Volkswagen was considering a Ford Everest-style four-wheel-drive wagon to accompany the latest Amarok ute – which shares its DNA with the Ford Ranger.


An SUV version of the Volkswagen Amarok – a twin to the Ford Ranger ute and Ford Everest four-wheel-drive wagon – was on the drawing board early in the design process of the new ute.

It is unclear if an Amarok wagon ever proceeded beyond the sketch phase – and Volkswagen executives in Germany have ranged from hesitant to interested when asked about the potential for a VW twin to the Ford Everest.

A sketch posted online by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles design boss Albert Kirzinger shows Volkswagen was at one point considering an Everest-like Amarok wagon.

“Exploring design ideas for the Amarok pickup truck! Our research phase back in the day took us on an off-road journey, and here’s a sneak peek with a rendering featuring a fully closed pick-up bed,” the executive said on corporate social-media platform LinkedIn.

It’s unclear how far into the design process – which began in 2017 or 2018 when Ford and Volkswagen first met to define the dimensions and features of their twinned utes – this sketch was created.

While Mr Kirzinger describes the car pictured as having a “fully closed pick-up bed”, it is not a ute with a canopy, rather is a true Ford Everest or Isuzu MU-X-esque five-door wagon with a shorter wheelbase than a dual-cab ute, and bespoke bodywork.

Volkswagen has previously said there are no current plans for an Amarok-based wagon, but some executives have expressed an intention for one, with a caveat: it would be electric, rather than petrol or diesel-powered.

“I think in the next 12 months, we will have more of a decision about this topic,” Waldemar Bauf, VW Commercial Vehicles product planner, told Drive in early December 2022, more than 13 months ago.

“If you ask me, if I bring [an electric Amarok], then I will bring both [an electric Amarok ute and wagon].”

Asked in the comments of the LinkedIn post if sharing the sketch “a hint that there is a VW sibling of the Everest on the way,” Mr Kirzinger did not confirm it was the case, but did not rule it out: “Sorry – but no further hint.”

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020.

Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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