Volkswagen is inching closer to overtaking Tesla’s title of the world’s largest electric carmaker in recent months. The German automaker recently announced a multimillion dollar investments into the production and development of electric vehicles in hopes of taking the crown.
According to the automaker, by 2030 they are aiming to take over 70 percent of the EV market share in Europe. Within the same timeline, Volkswagen would like to secure at least half of the EV market in the US. With this, it’s going to take more than the ID.4 in the US to take over an EV giant like Tesla, and Volkswagen maybe considering pulling out all the stops for this win in the form of an electric truck. With the huge demand for SUVs and pickup trucks in the United States, it would only make sense for VW to bring one to market as their toughest competition is already one step ahead with the Tesla Cybertruck.
Hein Schafer, Senior VP of Product Marketing for Volkswagen of America can be seen in a recent upload from Autoline daily news saying:“A new battery electric platform does open new doors for us, and it does kind of level the playing field to a certain degree. And does give us potentially the opportunity to bring some sort of mid-size pickup or maybe something a little larger.”
Schafer continued: “If we do build a large SUV on the BEV platform, maybe a large pickup might potentially make sense.”
Thanks to the adaptability of the brands skateboard-esque EV platform, it should be no problem underpinning a full-size pickup truck. Especially if they are already planning on building a large SUV on it, a few modifications should allow it to support a truck.
Regardless if the German automaker actually decides to go through with bringing and electric truck to market, it definitely won’t be the first one as Tesla, Rivian, and GMC all have their own electric pickup trucks just about ready to launch with deliveries starting as early as the next few months. At least Volkswagen be able to scope out the competition prior to their own launch.