VW says it's considering a PHEV or electric pickup truck

Volkswagen divulged to Autoblog and a small group of media at the Chicago Auto Show today that it is looking into making a pickup truck. This isn’t the first time in recent history VW has threatened to greenlight a pickup — the company was talking a similar tune back in 2019 when it unveiled the Tarok Concept, but nothing ever materialized. Maybe things will be different this time?

“So, the first thing we wanted to do was make sure we round out the electric vehicle SUV portfolio,” Hein Scafer, SVP of Product Marketing and Strategy started. “And the next request I think charged onto the board is of course we want a pickup truck. Please talk. Let's get it. Let's get a pencil into it man.”

VW said it will be making decisions in the second half of the year, so perhaps there could be some more news out later in 2023. What form would this pickup take? It’s still up in the air, but VW’s new CEO of America offered some clarifications.

“It would not be a combustion,” Pablo Di Si, VW CEO of America said. "Let me define, electrified. It can be electric. It can be a plug-in. It cannot be a combustion engine. That's for sure.”

So we’re all on the same page, Di Si is essentially saying that VW would never put out a purely combustion engine pickup truck. Instead, it would be either a plug-in hybrid or a purely electric truck. For now, VW isn’t committing to either direction. Another thing that Di Si made very clear is that it won’t have anything to do with the electric pickup that Scout has already announced — this would be a VW project.