Volkswagen is considering an electrified pickup for the US market

American Volkswagen executives still want a pickup truck for the US market, and they don’t seem content to leave the segment unanswered.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen Group of America President and CEO Pablo Di Si told the Motor Authority the automaker would look again at the pickup truck segment for America.

The timeline for the arrival of a Volkswagen pickup at dealerships is not clear, but the board said the current plan is to make a proposal to the board in Germany in the third quarter of 2023.

Should a pickup be approved, it would be developed in America for America. Di Si noted that cars built in America for America are more successful, as demonstrated by the Atlas crossover SUV, which is designed and engineered in America and built in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

VW’s potential pickup would use the current platforms in the automaker’s portfolio and would be electrified. Expect it to be a unibody vehicle, likely based on the Atlas platform.

Introduced for the 2018 model year and refreshed for 2021, the Atlas will debut an updated look for 2024 at the 2023 Chicago Auto Show. A next-generation atlas could be years away.

Volkswagen’s North American chief sales and marketing officer, Andrew Savvas, told the Motor Authority that the next-generation Atlas could be electrified. Di Si noted that it could have a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain, but a plug-in hybrid model makes more of an impact. “It’s not strategically wise to go in multiple directions on hybrids,” Di Si said.

Any future plug-in hybrid pickup truck, or Atlas, would not only have to be built in America, but its battery pack minerals and cells would also have to be domestically sourced to qualify for the recent Inflation Reduction Act stimulus. If VW does, however, its battery supplier would qualify for up to $45 per kilowatt-hour in battery manufacturing incentives under a different part of the IRA. That could make an Atlas-based PHEV pickup significantly cheaper than any non-plug competitor.

Volkswagen unveiled a Tanoak pickup truck concept based on the Atlas at the 2018 New York Auto Show. At the time, executives said the concept wasn’t meant for production, but was meant to gauge consumer interest.