VW Signals Rugged SUVs and Pickups Will Power Its US Turnaround
Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume sees rugged SUVs and pickups like the Jeep Wrangler and Ford F-150 as a way to boost its flagging U.S. business, with the automaker considering new VW and Audi models tailored to American buyers.
Blume told investors that the group lacks vehicles built on so-called ladder frames, the truck-style foundations used for serious off-roaders and pickups popular in the US, according to a transcript of the meeting seen by Bloomberg News.
The models are an opportunity for Audi and the company’s namesake brand, he said. VW would make such cars in the U.S., he indicated.
The move would put VW up against some of the strongest franchises in the U.S. auto industry. Ford Motor Co.’s F-Series is a perennial bestseller, while General Motors Co., Ford and Stellantis NV’s Ram dominate large pickups. Toyota has built a strong position with the Tacoma midsize pickup and 4Runner SUV.
A turnaround in the U.S. has become more urgent for Volkswagen as its once-lucrative China business deteriorates. The German group has only around 4% of the US market, while Audi’s U.S. sales fell 17% in the first half. Last week, VW ended months of fractious talks with labor leaders in Germany to win support for a sweeping overhaul that’ll double global job cuts to 100,000 as profits sag, partly due to high-cost operations at home.
Moving into more expensive trucks and SUVs would give Blume a shot at some of the US market’s richest segments while reducing VW’s reliance on lower-margin imports from Mexico. Producing the vehicles locally would also reduce its exposure to tariffs, a major drag on the group’s US business. VW’s SUV and pickup plans would build on its revival of electrified off-road models under the Scout Motors brand, for which it’s building a factory in South Carolina.
There are “profit pools still not played by Volkswagen Group, especially rugged SUVs and pickups,” Blume said during the question-and-answer session of the meeting. “And there, you know about the activities in Scout, but more than this,” he said, adding that Volkswagen sees opportunities for both Audi and its namesake brand to introduce ladder-frame vehicles.
On the same call, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz pointed to the weakness in VW’s current setup. The Jetta sedan and Taos compact SUV account for significant US volume, but “you don’t need much fantasy” to see that their margins are poor when they’re shipped from Mexico under the current tariff regime, he said.
VW is now looking to shift toward richer parts of the market. For the namesake Volkswagen brand, “it’s too early to make an announcement,” Antlitz said, adding that the company is moving into segments “which are more promising in terms of margin.”
A spokesman for VW declined to comment on the company’s plans for the US.
Known in the US as body-on-frame vehicles, such models are built more like traditional trucks, making them well suited to towing and serious off-road driving. Volkswagen already uses the construction for its Amarok pickup, while the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, Toyota Tacoma and 4Runner are prominent US examples. Audi currently has no comparable model in its lineup.
Success is far from guaranteed. Pickup buyers are fiercely loyal, and other automakers have struggled to break Detroit’s hold on the largest truck segments. Many mainstream buyers have also shifted toward smaller, car-based SUVs such as Toyota’s RAV4 and Honda’s CR-V, which typically use less fuel than vehicles built on heavier underpinnings.
Pickups also face an added trade hurdle: the U.S. has long imposed a 25% tariff on many imported light trucks under the so-called “chicken tax,” adding to the case for producing any new models in the country.
The comments are among the clearest indications yet of how Volkswagen plans to remake its US lineup. Blume is pushing the group away from a one-size-fits-all global-car strategy and toward vehicles developed more closely around what buyers in individual markets want.
Scout, set to start sales in 2028, is already developing two body-on-frame vehicles, the Terra pickup and Traveler SUV, for the South Carolina site. That gives Volkswagen a new U.S. manufacturing base for the type of vehicles Blume is targeting, though he didn’t say whether future Volkswagen or Audi models would share Scout technology or be produced at the plant.
Top photo: A 2026 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon on an obstacle course during the 2026 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Bloomberg.