Volkswagen locks-in first quarter 2023 debut for Amarok in South Africa

With more teaser sketches anticipated to be dropped over the coming months, Volkswagen South Africa has confirmed that the all-new Amarok will be making landfall next year.

In confirming the premiere, originally planned for the end of this year and likely delayed to avoid overlapping with the planned unveiling of the new Ford Ranger, Volkswagen’s Head of Commercial Vehicles, Sean Handley, in a short statement, said the second-generation Amarok will become available from the first quarter of 2023.

At the same time, Wolfsburg’s Head of Commercial Vehicles in Australia, Ryan Davies, told carsguide.com.au that the world reveal will “happen just after mid-year, so in July”, before remarking, “we won’t really get production vehicles arriving through until January or February 2023”.

Spied as far back as September last year undergoing testing, the Amarok, as evident by recent teasers, will differ not only externally but also internally from the Ranger, with Davies also confirming that it will remain a double cab only model.

“All you need to do is look at the market. It’s dual-cab-centric. Single-cab has not been a big part for us since the launch of the Amarok, and we don’t expect it to be a big part. We will be focusing on dual-cab, and the iterations of dual-cab,” he said.

As is known by now, the Amarok will ride on the same T6.2 platform as the Ranger and Everest, with production moving from the General Pacheo plant in Argentina to Ford’s Silverton facility outside Pretoria as part of the Dearborn’s record R15.8-billion investment last year.

Also confirmed are the use of Ford engines with the eschewing of the single and bi-turbo 2.0 TDI units, as well as the 190kW/580Nm 3.0 TDI V6, in favour of the similarly sized four-cylinders and the 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 formerly sold under the Powerstroke moniker in the Ford F-150.

ALSO READ: Open secret no more: New Volkswagen Amarok V6 will be Ford powered

While the 2.0-litre units, which will be manufactured alongside the V6 at Ford’s Straundale Engine Plant in Nelson Mandela Bay, will be paired to a six-speed manual gearbox, the Amarok is unlikely to offer a three-pedal option as per its segment ranking.

Instead, it will receive the General Motors co-developed ten-speed automatic Ford uses on the mentioned 2.0-litre Panther units, as well as the V6, meaning that the current eight-speed Tiptronic will bow too once production ends.

At the same time, Ford Performance Vehicle boss, Ali Jammoul, confirmed that a decision had been made not to grant Volkswagen access to patent documents pertaining to the internal workings of the Ranger Raptor.

In what appears to be the likely end for the much rumoured Amarok R, Jammoul told carsguide.com.au that, “we want to protect Raptor. I am happy that this Ford’s decision”.

According to the publication, the supposed rejection comes on the back of numerous requests by Wolfsburg to have the Amarok R approved using Raptor technologies, which confirms long standing rumours that a hardcore Amarok had been planned.

Despite Ford’s refusal, chances are that the R could still become a reality via long-time former Holden tuner Walkinshaw Performance, who produces the aesthetically enhanced W-Series that has been a runaway success Down Under. For now though, the R remains an unproved project.