The new Volkswagen Amarok will be premiered at the Nampo Harvest Day in Bothaville, North West on Tuesday, 18 May 2010. Nampo is the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere and nearly 60 000 people visit the show over four days.

“The Nampo show offers us an ideal opportunity to introduce the Amarok to the South Africa public. Visitors to the Nampo show are mainly farmers who are amongst our key target customers for the Amarok” says Graeme Birch, Marketing Manager of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

Visitors will have an opportunity to meet Sarel van der Merwe, the brand ambassador of the new Amarok, who will take a few some lucky visitors onto the off-road course to experience the Amarok. One of the Amarok support vehicles used in this years Dakar Rally will also be on display.

The Volkswagen Amarok double cab will be launched locally in the third quarter of 2010 and the single cab will be launched in the first quarter of 2011.

Images of the all-new Volkswagen Amarok pickup truck leaked online Tuesday morning, nearly two weeks ahead of the vehicle’s official debut. Looking much like Volkswagen’s Concept Pickup shown over a year ago, the production model ditches the Ridgeline-like integrated body in favour of conventional body-on-frame construction with separate cab and box sections.

Power comes from a 2.0-litre common rail injection diesel motor, delivering 120 kW and 400 N.m of torque. A more economical version rated at 90 kW and 339 N.m will be added to the lineup a few months after launch. Customers will be able to choose between all-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive layouts. In the case of AWD, power is split 40-to-60 in favour of the rear wheels.

Production is expected to start later this year in Pacheco, Argentina, and the truck will be sold in South America, South Africa, Australia, as well as in some European countries. There are no known plans at this time for North American sales. That said, we can’t help but think a reasonably priced, fuel-efficient ‘pickup’ could do well in the United States at the moment.

Volkswagen is planning to build about 90 000 units annually.

Adapted from LeftLaneNews