Beetle based pickup for U.S. market?

Posted on October 6th, 2008 by Robert Adams | Posted under: Future/Concept, Volkswagen

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Last month Volkswagen introduced its Pickup Concept at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hanover, Germany. Rumored to be called “Robust” or “Taro” this pickup won’t be sold in the states. VW will only sell the new truck in South America, South Africa, Australia and Europe.

According to Automotive News this doesn’t mean that Americans won’t be seeing the VW pickup. Rumor is that Volkswagen considers selling a new pickup in the U.S. that’s based on its upcoming second-generation New Beetle.

That would be something new. Europeans are getting a big one-ton pickup truck and Americans will get a small Beetle based pickup.

What would the beetle pickup look like? Four years ago German coachbuilder FargoFun created custom pickups based on the first-generation New Beetle. They featured a trunk in the tailgate and 1,000 pounds of load-carrying capacity in the cargo box. Cost of the conversion was around $10,000 which did not make it very popular.

Below we have images of the Beetle conversion done by FargoFun. If Robust is a one-ton pickup then Beetle based pickup would most likely be a half ton and in the same category as Pontiac G8 ST.