Volkswagen not saying no entirely to Ranger Raptor rivalling Amarok

Volkswagen has reportedly not backed down on the prospect of introducing an off-road focused performance version of the new Amarok after being denied such a model at the behest of alliance partner Ford.

Rumours begin

Back in 2020, Germany’s AutoBild reported that a high-performance R version, along the lines of the new Ford Ranger Raptor, had been mentioned with a reported 221 kW output from a four-cylinder engine.

Despite remaining mum on the speculation at the time, Wolfsburg’s Director for Commercial Vehicles in Australia, Ryan Davies, subsequently confirmed in February this year that an R model was being investigated, but not confirmed.

Unlike the Ranger Raptor, Australian media alleged that the Amarok R would possibly come by the way of long-time former Holden tuner Walkinshaw Automotive, who produces the W-series solely for that market with approval from Volkswagen Germany.

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The plans for an Amarok R eventually came to nothing after it emerged in April that Dearborn had declined to provide its blueprints to Volkswagen along with permission to use the Raptor’s twin-turbo 3.0 EcoBoost V6.

While not expected to exploit its partnership with Ford to a Volkswagen-badged SUV version of the Everest, the marque’s Product Manager for the Commercial division, Petr Sulc, said while it hasn’t given up on a Raptor-esque model, a business case needs to be drawn up first before any development could commence.

“If you ask me as a product manager, I will tell you no. If you ask me as a sales guy, I will tell you of course, immediately,” Sulc told Australia’s drive.com.au at the global unveiling of the all-new Amarok in Cape Town this past week.

“What will be the goal for the future? We are always thinking of how to make our [vehicle line-up] better and better”.

But could it happen?

Despite Sulc not commenting on the topic further, speculation is that a more powerful Amarok would more than likely be limited to Australia once again, should approval be given, as evident by the W-series that boasted mostly exterior, interior and chassis adaptions rather than more power.

With the EcoBoost V6 from the Raptor off the table, the most likely candidate for the Amarok R will be the flagship 3.0-litre Lion V6 turbodiesel engine that currently produces 184kW/600Nm.

Another option, which will fall in-line with AutoBild’s claims, is the 2.3 EcoBoost both Australia and Europe, but seemingly not South Africa, will be receiving.

In this guise, the unit delivers 222kW/452Nm which, although down on the 292kW/583Nm made by the Raptor’s V6, presents a unique alternative for being turned-up a notch as pre-order sales Down Under have come as an unexpected surprise.

“When we initially looked at [the petrol engine], we thought it was an interesting engine, but we may have slightly undercalled the mix of that car. It seems to be a lot more interest in that engine than we anticipated,” Davis was quoted by drive.com.au as saying last month.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the petrol engine from customers, but also, funnily enough, from journalists. So, it’s interesting”.

South Africa the likely spy hub?

As a reminder, the Amarok will be made exclusively at Ford’s Silverton Plant outside Pretoria alongside the Ranger now that both the Everest and Ranger Raptor are again sourced from Thailand.

Therefore, should an Amarok R receive the go-ahead by Volkswagen, expect prototype sightings to become a mainstay on the country’s throughout next year.