Power boost for Volkswagen Amarok Highline ute
Aussies buy more V6 Amarok utes than any other country and VW is celebrating by offering more power and equipmentThe Volkswagen Amarok Highline TDI 550 has been upgraded to 580 – and that means more power, torque and equipment for the top-selling VW dual-cab 4x4 ute in Australia.
The Volkswagen Amarok Highline TDI 580 will be released in September and although pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet, the new model will get an extra 35kW of power and 30Nm of torque.
Replacing the current Volkswagen Amarok Highline TDI 550 (165kW/550Nm), the Highline TDI 580 (200kW/580Nm) gets a more powerful version of the brand’s 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel, which is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
The new model grade has a full 3.5-tonne towing capacity and can accelerate to 100km/h in a brisk 7.3 seconds.
Australians bought more V6-powered Amarok utes in June than any other global market, with almost 90 per cent of the 1229 Amaroks sold here last month packing V6 powerplants.
In total, only Argentineans bought more VW Amarok utes in June than Australians, but the majority of those utes (70 per cent) were four-cylinder variants.
Australia’s love affair with six-cylinder Amarok utes looks set to continue as the V6 Highline TDI 580 arrives with lots of standard features from September, including:
- Stainless steel sports bar and side steps
- 'Salipria' cloth seat trim
- Leather covered multi-function steering wheel
- 18-inch 'Rawson' alloy wheels
- Dual-zone climatronic air conditioning
- Front and rear parking sensors
- Reverse camera
- Front fog lights with cornering function
- Xenon headlights with LED daytime running lights
- Tinted tail-lights
- Discover Media navigation with App-Connect
- Alarm with interior monitoring
The move to the more powerful V6 engine tune for the Highline model, which now matches the Highline Black, S and Ultimate model grades, comes as all Volkswagen Amarok production shifts to the German brand’s Argentinean factory.
This means V6 Amarok 580 models will no longer come from Germany and therefore they revert back to an older Euro5 (not Euro6) emissions standard. This also means that AdBlue additive is no longer required for the less-advanced but more powerful V6 engines.
As well as strong Amarok sales, June 2020 saw Volkswagen Group Australia's commercial brand record its third highest sales on record, with combined sales of 1880 sales making it the third biggest global market for commercial vehicles behind France (2029) and the UK (3028).
Volkswagen Australia's commercial vehicles boss, Ryan Davies, was clearly stoked with Amarok V6 sales.
“There are some exceptional utes on the Australian market but we can state confidently that the Amarok V6 remains at the forefront for performance and driving dynamics,” he said.
“Clearly Australians are continuing to respond to that.”
The next-generation Volkswagen Amarok will be launched in 2022 and will be based on the new Ford Ranger, which is due for a 2021 launch.
It’s expected the new Ranger and Amarok utes will both offer V6 turbo-diesel power.
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