New Volkswagen Amarok rendered

We’ve seen a variety of teaser sketches of the 2023 Volkswagen Amarok as the German brand draws closer to the second-generation ute’s launch later this year.

All of these have shed new light on the design of the Australian-developed 4x4 dual-cab that’s based on the all-new 2022 Ford Ranger, but as the sketches mount, they’ve now provided enough material for these unofficial renders created by Kleber Silva of KDesign.

Volkswagen promises that the new Amarok won’t be a Ford Ranger copy, and the major changes shown here point the way to the production version.

These include quasi-trapezoidal rather than semi-circular wheel-arches, mild power humps on the bonnet and a completely reworked front-end.

The LED headlights flow into a full-width LED light bar, and together with the fog lights appear to be influenced by the Volkswagen T-Roc SUV.

The overall fascia design is also largely faithful to VW’s official sketches, which show the upper and lower grille and bash plate combining to create an X-like motif.

Finer touches like a winch and overt recovery hooks in the front bumper have been added, mimicking VW’s sketches here too.

These Amarok renderings appear to use the new 2022 Ford Ranger Wildtrak dual-cab as the base vehicle, with the doors, roof, rear-end and LED tail-lights almost identical, and smaller details such as the rear sail plane and roof rails also largely unchanged.

The cabin has also been rendered, with changes to the climate control buttons, steering wheel switchgear and the fitment of the VW badge the only major differences.

The gear shifter, large 12-inch central touch-screen and 12.4-inch digital driver’s display remain the same, as do the seats, the vents and pretty much everything else.

It remains to be seen how much effort VW will put into changing the cabin, but recent official sketches from Volkswagen suggest the vents and dashboard design will be provide points of difference from the new-generation Ford Ranger.

The Amarok is almost certain to gain the same powertrains as the Ranger, including the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6.

Given the success of Volkswagen Australia’s locally-developed tough trucks, including the circa-$77,000 Amarok W580X, the new VW ute is also expected to offer flagship models to rival the likes of the Ranger Raptor.

While the official design will remain a closely-held secret for a while yet, VW promises its new ute will get improved smartphone connectivity and “significantly more” driver assistance systems and technology.