Meet the baby Amarok

IN THE space below Amarok there will soon be a bakkie called Tarok, and the concept you see here, just revealed at the Sao Paulo Motor Show, will spawn a production model with “barely any changes”.

The Tarok will initially go on sale in Brazil, but Volkswagen also states that it has the potential to boost its model range in other global markets. At this stage there has been no confirmation of whether it will be offered in South Africa, but it would undoubtedly be a natural fit.

Like the now-scarce half-tonne bakkies that South Africans have come to know and love over the years, the Tarok is a unibody pick-up, but it will be a larger and more expensive offering.

At this stage VW is only mentioning a double cab but don’t be surprised if a single cab emerges at a later stage to supplement or replace the Brazilian Saveiro range.

The Tarok will be built on VW’s modular MQB platform. In this guise it has been stretched to a five-metre length, and designers have come up with some innovative solutions for extending the load bay. Owners can tumble the back seats and then fold the lower rear cab panel forward, while the tailgate can also form an extension on the other end.

With all that in place the Tarok has a loading area that’s more than 1.8 metres in length and in weight terms it can also reportedly put up with a tonne.

The compact bakkie is also likely to set some design trends in the bakkie world, its ‘Targa bar’ C-pillar design almost certain to prove a hit.

The double cab concept is powered by a version of VW’s 1.4-litre turbopetrol engine, producing 110kW, and mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox and 4Motion all-wheel-drive. The production model will also offer the option of a 110kW 2-litre TDI turbodiesel, with other variants and drive configurations likely joining the line-up at a later stage.