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The idea was simple – “build a modern Volkswagen pickup truck” – but the execution was anything but. The Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak concept vehicle unveiled at the New York International Auto Show reflects months of work by dozens of VW designers and engineers to build something that has not existed before; a real mid-size pickup,  designed for American tastes, from the highly flexible platform architectures of the Volkswagen Group. The result was the hit of the show, precisely because it mixed style with utility in a way that many real-life pickups struggle to blend. “Pickups are distinctly American,” said Klaus Bischoff, the head of VW Design. “If you go into this territory, you need to come up with something cool, and something that works. You can’t do something unserious. “This” he said, pointing to the Tanoak, “is engineered to the bone.” Outside of using the MQB platform, those “bones” that lie underneath VW models from the Golf to the Atlas, Bischoff says t...

Wolfsburg / New York (March 28, 2018) — The Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak pickup truck concept makes its world debut today at the New York International Auto Show. Named after a species of tree that is native to the Pacific Coast in the U.S. (and grows up to 135 feet high in height), the Atlas Tanoak is the first pickup based on Volkswagen’s MQB or modular transverse matrix architecture. Powered by a 276-horsepower V6 FSI® gasoline engine, the Atlas Tanoak uses an efficient eight-speed automatic transmission and the 4MOTION® all-wheel-drive system. Although there are currently no production plans for the Atlas Tanoak, Volkswagen is keen to gauge the reactions of buyers and media, since pickup trucks are one of the biggest volume segments in the U.S. The MQB architecture is one of the most innovative and flexible technical platforms in the automotive world, spanning vehicles from the European Polo subcompact all the way up to the Atlas midsize SUV. The Atlas Tanoak concept shows that MQB c...