Will This Be Volkswagen's Future Pickup Truck For The US Market?

For years, we've had to watch as the rest of the world enjoys the Volkswagen Amarok, ahandsome, diesel-powered small pickup truck that has never been sold in the US. VW has finally been hinting at some kind of truck offering in the US andrecent rumors of a partnership with Ford give us hopethat a US-bound VW truck could finally happen.

Last week,VW teased a new pickup truck conceptto be revealed at the 2018 Sao Paulo International Motor Show. Now, VW has pulled the wraps off the new Tarok Concept, a small, versatile truck positioned below the Amarok.

Straight away, we love the styling. Even though this is only a concept, VW will almost certainly offer a production version in Brazil with very few changes to the design. It's a long-shot but VW has said "the vehicle concept could conceivably be suitable for other regions," so there's a chance one of those regions is North America.

Under the hood sits a 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 147 hp, whichsounds a lot like the engine found in the seventh-generation Jetta. If the Tarok does share a powerplant with the Jetta, this could make it viable to be sold in the US market. Power goes out to a 4MOTION all-wheel-drive system through a six-speed automatic.

VW says future Tarok models will also be available with a 2.0-liter diesel engine, though we doubt this engine would make it to the US. Perhaps we could get amore powerful version with the engine from the upcoming Jetta GLI.