Car Moon

During the Sao Paulo International Auto Show in Brazil, Volkswagen officials confirmed that the firm's forthcoming pickup truck that was revealed in concept form at the IAA commercial vehicle show in Hannover in September will go on sale in Europe in 2010. In an interview with Autonews at the Sao Paulo motorshow, "VW do Brasil" CEO Thomas Schmall said the pickup's main markets will be Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Australia. The German company also said it has no plans to export the pickup truck to the U.S. market. -Continued

The most important highlight of the Hanover trade fair from VW’s perspective is its first ever presentation of the Pickup truck concept that provides an outlook on the manufacturer’s fourth model series that will be built at its Pacheco site in Argentina starting from fall 2009. According to the Stephan Schaller, CEO of VW Commercial Vehicles, the key markets for the production version of the Pickup are the countries of South America, South Africa, Australia and South East Asia. -Continued

The Pickup will also be available in Europe where it will compete against the likes of the Toyota HiLux and the Nissan Navara. For the time being, Volkswagen’s plans do not include the North American market, though this decision could change over time. The company’s overall sales projections for the new Pickup amount to around 100,000 units per year. Click here to check out more details on Volkswagen's new Pickup Truck concept.

Photos: UP / Edited by Carscoop

After many speculations and rumors, VW finally lifted the wraps off its forthcoming 1-tonne pickup truck in the form of a pre-production model simply called ‘Pickup’ at the International Automobile Exhibition in Hanover (public days: September 25 to October 02). The concept gives us a taste of the production model that we’ve become accustomed to knowing it as Robust. Production of the new Pickup will begin in fall 2009 at Volkswagen’s “Pacheco” plant in Argentina. According to VW, the production model will be initially introduced at the end of 2009 to South America, South Africa, Australia and Europe with other markets following shortly after. -Continued

At the Hannover Show, VW previewed a four-door, four-seat version of its 1-tonne pickup truck specially designed as a “Search and Rescue” version (SAR) for protecting swimmers and surfers from worst case scenarios.

Volkswagen claims that this is the first pickup of this sort from any high-volume European automotive manufacturer and that the 5.18 meter long concept vehicle with the 1.55 meter long cargo bed is not based on any familiar model series of the Group. Power comes from the German automaker's latest generation common-rail turbo-diesels (TDI) though VW did not give out any other specific details on the powertrain options.

In terms of design, the Pickup follows the new VW-DNA initially presented by the company’s passenger car division in the form of the Scirocco and the sixth generation Golf though we must say that the German automaker's design team must have taken a sneak peek at the Honda Ridgeline when they were styling pickup's rear-end.