Amarok to star on VW stand at CV Show

Thursday, 10 February 2011 07:56 |

Written by Neil McIntee

Volkswagen has confirmed to VansA2Z that it will be attending this year’s Commercial Vehicle Show at the NEC, Birmingham. Although VW will neither confirm nor deny that the Amarok will take centre stage it doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to surmise that it will. After all it goes on sale in the UK at the end of April/beginning of May.

Accessory companies like Penny Hydraulics, for example, have already stated that Amarok will feature among their exhibits. There is no way VW will miss this opportunity to unveil its latest light commercial to a load a potential customers.

Built in Argentina, the Amarok gives VW the ammunition to tackle the one-tonne pick-up market in the UK head-on. Initially available solely as a 4x4 double cab there will be a choice of permanent or selectable four-wheel drive, with the latter having a set of low ratio gears for serious off-roading.

A fully featured ESP system is fitted as standard, including stabilisation of trailers up to a gross weight of 2,800kg.

Accessed via a drop-down tailgate the double cab’s load bed is 1,555mm long, 1,620mm wide — narrowing to 1,222mm between the wheel boxes and the side walls are 508mm high. Payload will undoubtedly be in excess of 1,000kg so that VAT can be reclaimed.

There’ll be a choice of two, four cylinder 2-litre Euro 5 turbodiesels which are also found in the current Transporter. The lower powered option is capable of producing 121hp and developing 340Nm of peak torque while the high-power option manages 163hp and 400Nm.

Having already been behind the wheel of a left-hand drive Amarok we can state that it’s a game-changer in the pick-up market. Hopefully we’ll be driving UK models prior to the CV Show, so will be able to post a full video report ahead of the doors opening on 12 April.

to visit Volkswagen UK's Amarok web site.

Simon Elliot, Volkswagen UK's diector of commercial vehicles, has since confirmed that the Amarok will indeed feature heavily on the stand at the CV Show.