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Report: Volkswagen has killed its European and U.S. pickup program

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1 1,697 views July 4, 2008

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Report: Volkswagen has killed its European and U.S. pickup program

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The long-awaited and much anticipated Volkswagen Robust pickup truck has been canceled for European sale, according to the latest reports. The truck will still be sold in South America, but the U.S. is also off the table. New analysis of fuel prices and market demand show there is no logical place for the vehicle in Europe.

The same conclusions would likely be reached if the analysis were performed on U.S. data, with even the classic market leading pickups failing miserably over the last few months. The report of the U.S. and EU kill-off of the Robust program comes from Automobilwoche, which also notes that the €233 million investment in the company's Pacheco, Buenos Aires plant in Argentina and continuing demand mean the truck will still be built there, starting in 2009.

Canceling the Robust program means there are 700 jobs in limbo at the 13,000-worker Hanover plant in Germany. VW is looking for other projects to take up the slack left by the Robust, but so far nothing has been announced.

VW Robust Pickup spy shots

Volkswagen Robust pickup

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Comment (1)

By Jim Posted: 7/6/2008 8:06am PDT

Did someone at VW finally wake up and smell the coffee? I've no insight regarding Europe but in the US selling a VW badged pick up would have been, hmm, challenging. The question is why did VW even think they could sell a pickup? Nissan is giving up and will simply rebadge the Dodge Ram. Toyota, despite its hugely popular Tacoma has struggled in the full size market.

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