VW Readies Small Pickup Truck for Brazil

Volkswagen AG says the Tarok compact pickup truck it unveiled in preproduction form yesterday will launch “soon” in Brazil.

The Tarok (pictured) is an all-wheel-drive, four-door truck with one metric ton of load capacity. The concept is powered by a 1.4-liter ,4-cylinder flex-fuel gasoline or 2.0-liter diesel. Both engines deliver 148 hp through a 6-speed automatic transmission.

The stylish truck will join the larger Amarok pickup that VW has been selling in Europe and South America for eight years. Neither model is likely to be imported to the U.S. because of the country’s decades-old 25% tariff on foreign-made pickups.

But the Tarok could one day be produced locally in the U.S. VW and Ford Motor Co. are in wide-ranging partnership talks with Ford Motor Co. that could lead to coordination of Tarok development with the just-introduced U.S. version of the Ford Ranger compact pickup.

Both trucks are about the same size. It’s unclear whether VW might eventually build the Tarok at its auto plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., or at the Ford factory outside Detroit that makes the more trucklike Ranger.