IT is durable, robust and can tackle any road, no matter how tricky: the Volkswagen Amarok will have to prove those claims from January during the world’s toughest rally.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is the “official supplier”

to the Dakar Rally and a partner to the organiser, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).

The new pickup from Volkswagen will be the support vehicle for the rally. The organiser is to use 20 Amarok, with a further 15 to be used as press and shuttle vehicles.

From January 1 to 17, the Dakar Rally will also see four teams from Volkswagen Motorsport as well as many other teams travelling 9,000km through Argentina and Chile.

The rally starts and finishes in Buenos Aires.

The Amarok will undergo an endurance test during the Dakar Rally, because it will have to handle all the challenges of the demanding stages as the organiser’s vehicle to reconnoitre the rally stages, as a press vehicle and as a shuttle for the Volkswagen Motorsport team.

Four of the Volkswagen Amarok from the ASO fleet will get additional off-road conversions for the trip, and four Panamericana multivans will also be used.

Kris Nissen, Volkswagen Motorsport director, said: “We are pleased to be able to use the Volkswagen Amarok as our support vehicle, because the Dakar Rally demands the highest levels of technical perfection, reliability and endurance – from our race Touareg as much as from the support vehicles. The Amarok is exactly the right vehicle for our team.”

Stephan Schaller, CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, added: “The Amarok is Volkswagen’s answer to the pickup and on the Dakar Rally – one of the last great adventures for mankind – it will have the chance to show what it’s made of and to demonstrate its flexibility and durability.

Moreover, the Volkswagen Amarok is built in Argentina and South America is one of the most important markets for this product, so taking part in the 2010 Dakar Rally was an absolute must for us,” stresses Schaller.

The Volkswagen Amarok will be seen at the Dakar Rally in Argentina for the first time and will then be launched initially in South American markets, followed by Europe as Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles enters a new vehicle sector.