Need to transport a lot of people or stuff overseas? You could do worse than the Volkswagen Transporter. Need to take a lot of people or stuff off road? Then you’ll need this: the Transporter Rockton 4Motion.
The go-anywhere van from Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicles division packs a 4th-generation Haldex all-wheel drive system with a locking rear differential and a 1.2-inch ride-height boost over the standard Transporter. Heavy-duty springs and damper help it carry over three metric tons of payload, while a 2.0-liter turbodiesel engine with either 138 or 178 horsepower does the pushing/pulling duties through a six-speed manual transmission.
There’s a more extreme Expedition package available straight from the factory with 16-inch wheels and all-terrain tires, a heftier transmission and a heavy-duty floor-rail system for variable seat and cargo configurations. Details in the press release after the jump, along with the high-resolution images in the gallery below.