Since electric trucks and luxury trucks are now a thing, Audi is reportedly considering combining the two into a single Ford Ranger-sized model, according to one report. It apparently has not been decided yet, but we could see the automaker tease it soon if it does get the green light.
Furthermore, if Audi was to start developing a pickup truck today, with plans to launch in a few years time, then it would really make the most sense to make it electric. The suggestion that it could be just a posh Volkswagen Amarok (which proved unsuccessful where it really matters, in the United States) seems unlikely to us, and it would not be out of the question if it used a version of the Volkswagen group MEB platform.
Another reason why we don’t believe it will be a fancier Amarok is that this has already been tried before, by an automaker with miles more tradition in the making of utilitarian, commercial type vehicles - Mercedes-Benz whose X-Class (based on the Nissan Navara, but made more luxurious) failed in all markets and was quickly pulled from the lineup - it was not a bad truck, but it seems people couldn’t justify the price premium for what was still mostly a Nissan.
Using MEB as a base would perhaps not allow Audi to make the vehicle as capable as an Amarok-based one off-road, although to be frank, we haven’t actually seen any off-road applications of the MEB platform, so we don’t really know how good it could be. But being designed with modularity and the idea of underpinning a wide range of models in mind, maybe MEB is fit for more rugged duties and there are just no examples to show it yet.
Some luxury versions of American pickups are proving very successful - the Denali version of the GMC Canyon and Sierra, for instance - so maybe Audi really is cooking up a more luxurious version of the VW Amarok, which is expected to return next year for an all-new generation, still powered by a V6 diesel engine.
