New York – Germany’s Volkswagen has thrown on a cowboy hat and boots and swaggered into the U.S. pickup market with the mid-size Atlas Tanoak truck concept.
Built on the same bones as the three-row Atlas SUV, the Tanoak — introduced Wednesday at the New York auto show — is the latest pickup to be based on a car-like unibody instead of a traditional body-on-frame truck chassis. It is also part of Volkswagen’s strategy to redefine itself as an ute-maker with an expanded Atlas family.
“The Tanoak takes (the Atlas) to a new all-American extreme,” Volkswagen North America CEO Hinrich Woebcken said at the reveal.
U.S. truck enthusiasts have long pooh-poohed unibody pickups for their lower towing and payload numbers. But unibody chassis boast a smoother ride than ladder frames, and the Honda Ridgeline — built on the same unibody as the Pilot SUV — has been a popular alternative since its 2016 introduction.
Hyundai is building its own unibody concept based on the Santa Cruz concept that debuted at the 2015 Detroit auto show. Volkswagen is testing the waters to see if there is room for its own unibody creation.
There are no current production plans for the Atlas Tanoak, according to Volkswagen. But the automaker wants to gauge response to the idea, since pickups are one of the biggest volume segments in the U.S.
