New Volkswagen Amarok Walkinshaw confirmed

A SECOND-GENERATION Volkswagen Amarok Walkinshaw has been greenlit, with the final design of the first variant in a possible line of models locked in. Previewed by a sole, shadowy rendering, testing of the fettled dual-cab ute is set to commence within months ahead of an Australian release in 2026.

The announcement that Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA) has formally renewed its collaboration with Walkinshaw Automotive Group (WAG) was made at a Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) briefing in Sydney attended by VWCV chief executive Carsten Intra, VGA managing director Karsten Seifert, and WAG director Ryan Walkinshaw.

“We have had a couple of Amaroks in our workshop for a while now. We’re ready to go, and we will begin testing towards the end of this year,” Mr Walkinshaw told GoAuto.

“We now have all designs approved internally between ourselves and Volkswagen. Now it goes into tooling, long lead time items, and bringing the right suppliers into the equation to support the program.”

Three variants of Amarok Walkinshaw were released under the partnership between 2020 and 2022 – the final years of the ute’s 11-year local run. Based on the first-generation Amarok (which used a Volkswagen platform), more than 2600 examples of the ‘GT’-esque W580/W580S, offroad-orientated W580X and limited-run W580SE variants were sub-assembled in Australia.

The ‘W-series’ Amarok was regarded by VGA as a shining success, and a decision to reboot the VGA-WAG partnership is understood by GoAuto to have been made in early 2023, as reported at that time. Today’s confirmation of the second-generation Amarok Walkinshaw sets that course of action in stone and provides a clear timeline to customer deliveries.

Like all other second-generation Amarok variants, the renewed Walkinshaw variant – or variants – will be based upon the T6.2 toolkit chassis, for which the Ford Ranger serves as the lead vehicle and which Volkswagen adapted, under the German rivals’ vehicle platform-sharing strategy.

“This time (we will) go even further than we went before,” said Mr Walkinshaw.

“There is some opportunity potentially to add a few different variants that we may have had the ambition to do last time. (WAG) can invest more money because (there is) a longer period to get a return on investment.”

Such investment has been substantial, as the fettled second-gen Amarok will be sub-assembled within WAG’s new 100,000 square metre manufacturing facility in Dandenong, Victoria, that is set to come online in late 2025.

The rendering released by VGA of the new Amarok Walkinshaw reveals bespoke visual changes when compared to the dual flagships of the series-production Amarok (the rugged Pan Americana and the luxury Aventura), which measure an identical 5362mm in length, 1917mm in width, and 1884mm in height.

By contrast, the Amarok Walkinshaw clearly sports a unique grille design, full-width LED light bar connecting matrix LED headlights, unpainted guard extensions front and rear, a rear sailplane, low-set side steps, large alloy wheels and what appear to be road-orientated high-performance tyres – heavily implying that the initial Amarok Walkinshaw release will have a sporty focus.

“The (W580S) GT variant was the highest volume (in the previous Amarok Walkinshaw),” revealed Mr Walkinshaw.

“The response from customers across all three variants was very positive. I believe there were a lot of people (interested in) the W580X that were upset that there were not more in the market to be able to get their hands on.”

VGA representatives – and Mr Walkinshaw – would not be drawn on which powertrain has been selected for the vehicle. The most likely contender, potentially to be badged Amarok W600S, is the Amarok’s popular V6 diesel option, with the Ford-sourced 3.0-litre turbo engine producing 190kW/600Nm.

Alternatively, Volkswagen has ready access to a lighter and freer-revving turbo petrol engine. No, not the Ranger Raptor’s V6, but the Ford Mustang EcoBoost’s 2.3-litre four-cylinder making 222kW/452Nm in Amarok TSI452 guise.

Consideration of relative emissions under Australia’s new vehicle efficiency standard (NVES) laws do not seem to provide clues – as the TDI600 and TSI452 coincidentally produce an identical 222g/km of CO2 in combined driving.

While it is a dark horse of sorts, use of a petrol engine could help a road-focussed Amarok Walkinshaw stand out while boosting attention to the engine’s existence.

But the aforementioned petrol V6 used by the Ford Ranger Raptor – a 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol mill making 292kW/583Nm – appears to have been ruled out, with VGA acting general manager of corporate communications Daniel DeGasper telling GoAuto, “it is not the petrol V6, but we are not making any announcement as to the powertrain.”

As with the first-generation Amarok Walkinshaw, beyond visual changes, it is likely that WAG has been approved to fit bespoke suspension modifications, and potentially even an exhaust change (subject to costs related to emissions approvals) to the new vehicle.

When it was last sold, the ‘final edition’ Amarok W580SE model cost $86,990 plus on-road costs in Australia, about a 17 per cent premium over the pricing of the top-end, series-production Amarok of the time (the TDI580 Aventura), which cost $73,990 + ORC.

If a similar ratio held for the new-generation Amarok Walkinshaw, pricing of the high-performance special could land in the mid-$90,000 range considering the $82,990 + ORC price tag of the contemporary Amarok TDI600 Aventura grade, while the current Ford Ranger Raptor costs $90,400 + ORC.