Heavy on heritage and lightweight on particulars, the launch occasion confirmed Scout’s ideas for an EV 4×4 that’s each bit the equal of Jeep or Bronco.
Scout Motors, the startup electric-truck maker owned by Volkswagen, took the wraps off ideas for its first two 4×4 fashions exterior Nashville on Thursday night. The Terra truck and the Traveler SUV share most design and inside cues, with the truck using on an extended wheelbase. Whereas the automobiles proven will change, Scout executives urged that what the assembled followers, house owners, and reporters noticed was 85 to 90 % of the manufacturing automobiles.
Two completely different powertrains might be supplied: a battery-electric model with as much as 350 miles of vary, and the Harvester mannequin with a range-extending gasoline engine that delivers a mixed vary of greater than 500 miles. It’s not a plug-in hybrid however a range-extended EV, which means the gasoline engine powers a generator that recharges the battery, however can not energy the wheels mechanically. Scout costs will begin at roughly $60,000 earlier than incentives, and the corporate targets preliminary manufacturing in 2027.
Regardless of their electrical powertrains, the 2 Scout fashions use a newly developed body-on-frame structure not like something discovered elsewhere within the VW Group. For 4×4 functionality, they function a strong rear axle and locking differentials each entrance and rear. In the event that they debut on schedule in 2027, they’ll compete in opposition to off-road-capable fashions that embrace Ford’s Bronco 4x4s and Jeep’s Wrangler and Gladiator, all gasoline-powered, and electrical vehicles just like the GMC Hummer EVs and the Rivian R1S and R1T. All these automobiles will doubtless have been up to date from at the moment’s specs by the point the Scouts go on sale.
Pictures by John Voelcker.
Scout plans to promote the automobiles immediately by means of its personal gross sales and repair community, foregoing the franchised sellers that promote all different VW Group automobiles in North America—none of whom have expertise with both body-on-frame automobiles or critical 4x4s. The Scouts are to be in-built a brand-new manufacturing facility now below building close to Columbia, South Carolina. Customers can reserve the brand new fashions on the Scout Motors web site.
Over the long term, we’d anticipate Scout to finish up promoting extra Traveler SUVs than Terra vehicles—simply as Rivian stated it could, and has, with the R1S utility automobile in opposition to the R1T pickup truck that preceded it in manufacturing.
Heavy on heritage, gentle on particulars
Leaning closely into the heritage theme, the launch occasion featured a couple of dozen authentic Worldwide Scouts, together with the primary one in-built 1960 and the final Scout II in-built 1980. Scout house owners and fans on the occasion have been uniformly delighted the model would return, although many stated they have been doubtful concerning the thought of Scouts powered by batteries and electrical motors.
These authentic Scouts we noticed could be compact to midsize vehicles in at the moment’s phrases. The brand new Scouts are full-size vehicles, dimensionally far nearer to a Ford F-150 and Expedition than to the Rivian R1T and R1S. The longer of the 2, the Terra pickup, is 229 inches lengthy, 77 in excessive, and 92 in large. Using on a wheelbase that’s a whopping 28 inches shorter than the Terra’s 148 in, the Traveler SUV is 21 in shorter in size.
Pictures by John Voelcker.
The mattress of the Terra is 5.5 toes lengthy, roughly a foot greater than that of the Rivian R1T. And 6-foot adults will simply match into the rear seats, that are reached by way of exceptionally lengthy doorways. A center seat is even accessible for the entrance row, making the two-row Scouts able to carrying six passengers somewhat than the standard 5.
Weight stays an open query; any battery-electric automobile with 100 kWh of battery or extra doubtless weighs 3 to 4 tons.
Those that watched the occasion on-line commented rather a lot on similarities to Rivian, with some presuming the Scouts have been based mostly on Rivian underpinnings. Given VW’s joint-development settlement with Rivian, introduced in July, that wasn’t unreasonable. However excluding Scout’s use of Rivian’s zonal electrical structure—which permits over-the-air updates and extra options to be added throughout the lifetime of the automobile—Scout executives uniformly stated no structural, mechanical, or inside elements got here from Rivian.
Particulars on the specifics of the electrical drive trains have been sparse. No energy output was given, although torque was projected at “close to 1,000 lb-ft” with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph as little as 3.5 seconds. Scout gave no particulars on the range-extending combustion engine, which might be situated below the load bay behind the rear axle. (One exec confirmed it would NOT be a diesel, ahem.) The betting amongst reporters was that the engine might be a model of the Volkswagen EA288 inline-4, doubtless equipped from VW’s manufacturing facility in Puebla, Mexico.
Base suspension is mechanical, however air suspension might be accessible as an choice. Wheels as much as 35 inches in diameter might be supplied, with floor clearance of greater than 12 inches and projected wading depth of almost 3 toes. Payload for every mannequin was quoted as “close to 2,000 kilos,” with projected towing capability given as 10,000+ kilos for the Terra truck and seven,000+ kilos for the Traveler SUV.
Homeowners doing it for themselves
One theme of the reveal was the simplicity of old style controls. The Scouts have mounted door handles, not the flush or retracting ones utilized by Rivian and Tesla to scale back aerodynamic drag. Knobs and dials carry out each main operate within the cabin—an implicit rebuke to Volkswagen, which has changed many exhausting controls in its newest fashions with onscreen icons and digital controls.
There’s a small entrance trunk, which Scout claims is massive sufficient to retailer a bag of golf golf equipment, a cooler, and a health club bag. An oblong panel in the back of the left-rear fender, below the taillight, opens to disclose a NACS charging port—customary on each Scout—and three 120-volt energy retailers. Three 240-volt retailers have been talked about as properly, one thing that startled and impressed Scout house owners in attendance.
The Scout devoted in attendance clapped and cheered at a number of factors throughout the presentation over particular options—the bench seat, the facility retailers, the locking axles. However the loudest, longest applause got here on the finish, throughout a second when Scout CEO Scott Keogh paused in entrance of a display saying “Yet one more factor”.
The display then displayed a jerry can of gasoline, and Keogh introduced the vary extender and its title—Harvester, one other nod to Scout’s heritage, given its start as a product from the Worldwide Harvester farm-equipment firm.
Will Harvester EREVs get plugged in?
Keogh went on to emphasize the Scouts are nonetheless EVs, with all of the related advantages, together with the entrance trunk. However, he famous, the mix of a smaller battery pack and the range-extending generator would offer greater than 500 miles of vary—one thing only a few EVs supply at the moment.
Afterward, I caught up with Phil Coonrod, the proprietor of the very first Scout (# 501). He’d had a blast throughout the day, with the Scout devoted appreciating and complimenting his preservation of the 1960 mannequin. What did he consider the brand new ones, I requested? He liked them, he stated, and deliberate to order one which night for his spouse.
Which mannequin, the battery-electric or the range-extended one? “Oh, the hybrid,” he stated.
Truthful sufficient. Would he plug it in? He paused.
“I don’t know. In all probability.”
We’ll see whether or not the prosperous suburban households who’re doubtless to purchase the majority of the brand new Scouts take the identical perspective. As passionate because the heritage Scout neighborhood is, and as a lot as they admire their vehicles’ 4×4 capabilities, a full-size electrical SUV will extra doubtless be used as household transportation than for rock-crawling—as a Scout govt quietly acknowledged.
With greater than two years till the beginning of manufacturing, there’s rather a lot left to be taught concerning the new Scouts. But it surely appears secure to say the marketplace for full-size, body-on-frame pickup vehicles and SUVs—a automobile class largely confined to North America—could have a brand new electrical entrant in a couple of years. The brand new Scouts had a profitable debut. Now the corporate has to do the exhausting work of getting them into quantity manufacturing. Keep tuned.
Scout Motors supplied airfare, lodging, and meals to allow Charged to deliver you this first-person report.