It’s been a while since America’s golden shores have received a Volkswagen pickup. While we pine over the loss of the original Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup, much of the rest of the world enjoys the glories of the Volkswagen Amarok. But today, that begins to change. This is the Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak.
Officially just a “concept,” the Atlas Tanoak is, predictably, based on the Volkswagen Atlas SUV that we already get.
Of course, Volkswagen feigned disinterest in its press release, claiming that “there are currently no production plans for the Atlas Tanoak,” but much like you didn’t care who you asked you to prom BUT YOU REALLY HOPED IT WOULD BE IRENE, the company says it is “keen to gauge the reactions of buyers and media, since pickup trucks are one of the biggest volume segments in the U.S.”
So yeah, expect it to happen. Especially because VW is throwing out a ton of details. The Tanoak (Tan-oak? Tan-oh-ak?) is 214.1 inches long, which makes it more than a foot longer than the Atlas, enough to consider it “a large midsize pickup by U.S. standards.” The wheelbase itself is just under a foot longer than the already-quite-large Atlas as well.
The cargo bed of this “concept” (lol) is 64.1 inches long and 50.4 inches wide between the wheelwells, which is just three inches shorter and 0.2 inches narrower than a short-bed Ford F-150. If you want to compare it to something a bit smaller, like a Toyota Tacoma, the bed is a full four inches longer and nine inches wider.
And not to mention that’s it’s all powered by Volkswagen’s 3.6-liter V6 engine, with 276 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque.
The inside looks pretty production ready as well. I would expect it to maaaaybe be toned down slightly on the production version, but this looks pretty standard for cars nowadays:
Looks good though, don’t it?