Mid-size pickups
2014 U.S. sales by model and percent change from 2013: * Toyota Tacoma 155,041, down 2.8 percent * Nissan Frontier 74,323, up 18.3 percent * Honda Ridgeline 13,389, down 24.5 percent * Chevrolet Colorado 8,003, up 134.6 percent * GMC Canyon 3,070, up 230.5 percent Total: 253,826, up 3.7 percent Source: Kelley Blue Book
Ricky Smith of Al Johnson Volkswagen says he would welcome a VW pickup truck with what he terms "wide-open arms."
"I wish they would send me a hundred pickups," the Volkswagen sales rep at the Dalton, Ga., dealership said. "It would be the best ever."
The German automaker with an assembly plant in Chattanooga is considering bringing a pickup or small commercial van to the United States, according to Bloomberg.
Eckhard Scholz, Volkswagen's head of light commercial vehicles, said recently in Hanover, Germany, that the company is looking intensively at both options.
The company already sells a mid-size pickup, called the Amarok, outside the U.S. The truck is available in South America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and Russia.
Karl Brauer, senior editor for Kelley Blue Book, said a new VW pickup for America is "a good possibility."
"They have a global base, and they're a global company," he said.
To boost sales, VW currently is bulking up its U.S. offerings and undertaking a sport utility vehicle offensive with plans to assemble a new Chattanooga-made SUV in 2016. Also, it will produce a three-row Tiguan SUV at its Mexico plant, and it may produce a smaller compact SUV in Chattanooga.
Some VW officials have indicated the current Amarok is too small for the U.S. market, and the automaker might need something larger for American tastes.
For Volkswagen, it wouldn't be the first time it has offered a pickup in the United States. In 1980, VW introduced the Rabbit pickup. The small pickup was assembled for several years at VW's Pennsylvania plant before that facility shut down in 1988.
There's no indication from VW that a new pickup for America might be produced at the Chattanooga plant, which currently makes the Passat sedan and is slated to assemble the midsize SUV in 2016.
However, the Amarok is made in Argentina and Europe, and importing it would make it subject to the so-called "chicken tax," a hefty tariff that affects foreign-built trucks.
The so-called "chicken tax" is a 25 percent tariff that originated in the 1960s as a result of European countries placing a tariff on the importation of American chickens. While most of the original tariff has been repealed, the tax on pickup trucks remains in place.
The import fee on foreign-made pickups could encourage VW to use its Chattanooga or Puebla, Mexico plant for pickup production to avoid the tarifffs, if the company decides to move ahead.
Brauer said VW could easily jump into the pickup market in America.
"A pickup has the potential to take advantage of companies out there that don't have anything to offer," he said.
"Amarok" is said to mean "wolf" in Inuit. Globally, the number of Amarok pick-ups sold last year was 78,100, down 12.2 per cent from the prior year, according to VW.
The automaker cited a 20 per cent drop in Amarok vehicles in its main market of South America. Amarok sales decreased by one third in Brazil, its biggest South American market, due to economic conditions there, the company reported.
Still, the pickup truck segment is a big one in the U.S. More than 2.3 million such trucks were sold in 2014, though about 2 million were full-size rather than mid-size models, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Dodge discontinued its mid-size Dakota pickup in 2011, and Ford ditched its Ranger a year later, citing declining segment sales at the time.
Last year, however, mid-size truck sales rose 3.7 percent over 2013 in the U.S. The Toyota Tacoma led the segment with 54.1 percent of the market, Kelley reported. Full-size pickups sold jumped 7 percent with Ford's F-Series the leader.
Average transaction prices for pickups also grew last year, up to nearly $44,000 for full-size trucks and $29,213 for mid-size units, Kelley said.
In Chattanooga, reaction last week to a potential VW pickup truck was mixed.
Ricky Brown of Soddy-Daisy said he has been buying Ford vehicles for 40 years, though he'd be willing to check out an Amarok.
"I might look at it," he said. "It would be interesting to look at."
But Victor Perez of Chattanooga said he had no desire at all in a VW truck, even though he has owned a mid-size before in the Chevrolet S10.
"I wouldn't be interested in it," he said.
Brauer noted that Mercedes has announced plans for a new pickup, though the German company hasn't committed to selling it in the U.S.
Nissan and Mercedes parent Daimler are jointly developing the double-cab 1-ton pickup.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.