Photo: Scout Motors
Scout Motors plans to start production of two electric vehicles in 2026, building on the brand's great legacy. The models will be unveiled this summer, and the revived carmaker confirmed this will happen in August. The Scout EVs will compete head-on with Rivian's R1S and R1T, offering similar characteristics and capabilities.
Volkswagen found a treasure in its backyard, inheriting the Scout brand when its Traton subsidiary bought Navistar International. The German company has been trying to crack the US market for decades, mostly unsuccessfully. Since the hippie era, when the Bus and the Beetle became popular, no other Volkswagen model has sold in meaningful numbers in the US. The Germans hope to turn the tides with the revival of the Scout brand.
Volkswagen intends to build on Scout's great off-roading heritage with two rugged EVs, a pickup truck and an SUV. Although information about the upcoming models is sparse, all hints point to full-size models, thus competing in the most important US segment. This puts the Scout pickup truck a segment above the Rivian R1T, which is a mid-size pickup. However, Scout EVs are intended as all-purpose adventure vehicles with strong off-road capabilities, going head-to-head against the R1T on the trails.
Volkswagen already showed a couple of rough design sketches of the upcoming Scout EVs when it announced the brand's revival in 2022. However, the actual vehicles might look very different, as hinted by a more recent teaser in a Capital Markets Day presentation from June 2023. It's safe to assume that Scout Motors' chief designer, Chris Benjamin, has already penned the final design. That's because Scout Motors confirmed the upcoming electric off-roaders will be unveiled late this summer, probably in the second half of August.
Volkswagen has changed its strategy regarding Scout EVs several times, but the latest information indicates that the two off-roaders have been developed in partnership with Magna Steyr. That's the same contract manufacturer that produced Fisker Ocean EVs, which have been plagued by design, manufacturing, and software issues. Hopefully, the Scout EVs will turn out better. Scout Motors intends to build its EVs in the US in a new EV plant in South Carolina.
Since Volkswagen has no vehicle architecture suitable for an electric off-roader, it will have to design it from scratch. This brings both advantages and disadvantages unless Volkswagen decides to once again partner with Ford and use its upcoming T3 architecture. This will underpin the next generation of the F-150 Lightning, as well as the rumored electric Bronco.
However, if Scout decides to go alone in this endeavor, it will have to do better than it did with its latest off-road pickup truck, the mid-size Amarok. Volkswagen bets on a startup mentality to drive the Scout Motors project forward, which at some point rattled Volkswagen dealers. That's because you can't be a startup and sell your vehicles through a dealer network unless you want to follow Fisker into the ground.
Volkswagen intends to build on Scout's great off-roading heritage with two rugged EVs, a pickup truck and an SUV. Although information about the upcoming models is sparse, all hints point to full-size models, thus competing in the most important US segment. This puts the Scout pickup truck a segment above the Rivian R1T, which is a mid-size pickup. However, Scout EVs are intended as all-purpose adventure vehicles with strong off-road capabilities, going head-to-head against the R1T on the trails.
Volkswagen already showed a couple of rough design sketches of the upcoming Scout EVs when it announced the brand's revival in 2022. However, the actual vehicles might look very different, as hinted by a more recent teaser in a Capital Markets Day presentation from June 2023. It's safe to assume that Scout Motors' chief designer, Chris Benjamin, has already penned the final design. That's because Scout Motors confirmed the upcoming electric off-roaders will be unveiled late this summer, probably in the second half of August.
Volkswagen has changed its strategy regarding Scout EVs several times, but the latest information indicates that the two off-roaders have been developed in partnership with Magna Steyr. That's the same contract manufacturer that produced Fisker Ocean EVs, which have been plagued by design, manufacturing, and software issues. Hopefully, the Scout EVs will turn out better. Scout Motors intends to build its EVs in the US in a new EV plant in South Carolina.
Since Volkswagen has no vehicle architecture suitable for an electric off-roader, it will have to design it from scratch. This brings both advantages and disadvantages unless Volkswagen decides to once again partner with Ford and use its upcoming T3 architecture. This will underpin the next generation of the F-150 Lightning, as well as the rumored electric Bronco.
However, if Scout decides to go alone in this endeavor, it will have to do better than it did with its latest off-road pickup truck, the mid-size Amarok. Volkswagen bets on a startup mentality to drive the Scout Motors project forward, which at some point rattled Volkswagen dealers. That's because you can't be a startup and sell your vehicles through a dealer network unless you want to follow Fisker into the ground.
Google News