Heavy on heritage and light-weight 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 outdoors Nashville on Thursday night. The Terra truck and the Traveler SUV share most design and inside cues, with the truck driving on an extended wheelbase. Whereas the automobiles proven will change, Scout executives recommended that what the assembled followers, house owners, and reporters noticed was 85 to 90 % of the manufacturing automobiles.
Two totally different powertrains can be provided: 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’t 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 characteristic a stable rear axle and locking differentials each entrance and rear. In the event that they debut on schedule in 2027, they may compete towards 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.
Images by John Voelcker.
Scout plans to promote the automobiles immediately by 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 severe 4x4s. The Scouts are to be in-built a brand-new manufacturing unit now underneath development 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 mentioned it might, and has, with the R1S utility automobile towards the R1T pickup truck that preceded it in manufacturing.
Heavy on heritage, mild on particulars
Leaning closely into the heritage theme, the launch occasion featured a number 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 had been uniformly delighted the model would return, although many mentioned they had been doubtful in regards to 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 broad. 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.
Images 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 through exceptionally lengthy doorways. A center seat is even obtainable for the entrance row, making the two-row Scouts able to carrying six passengers moderately 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 had 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 through the lifetime of the automobile—Scout executives uniformly mentioned no structural, mechanical, or inside parts got here from Rivian.
Particulars on the specifics of the electrical drive trains had 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 can be positioned underneath the load bay behind the rear axle. (One exec confirmed it’s going to NOT be a diesel, ahem.) The betting amongst reporters was that the engine can be a model of the Volkswagen EA288 inline-4, doubtless equipped from VW’s manufacturing unit in Puebla, Mexico.
Base suspension is mechanical, however air suspension can be obtainable as an choice. Wheels as much as 35 inches in diameter can be provided, with floor clearance of greater than 12 inches and projected wading depth of practically 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 fastened 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 perform 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 fitness center bag. An oblong panel in the back of the left-rear fender, underneath the taillight, opens to disclose a NACS charging port—commonplace on each Scout—and three 120-volt energy retailers. Three 240-volt retailers had been talked about as effectively, one thing that startled and impressed Scout house owners in attendance.
The Scout devoted in attendance clapped and cheered at a number of factors through the presentation over particular options—the bench seat, the ability 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 delivery 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 mixture of a smaller battery pack and the range-extending generator would supply 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 through 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 cherished them, he mentioned, and deliberate to order one which night for his spouse.
Which mannequin, the battery-electric or the range-extended one? “Oh, the hybrid,” he mentioned.
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 study in regards to the new Scouts. However it appears secure to say the marketplace for full-size, body-on-frame pickup vehicles and SUVs—a automobile class largely confined to North America—can have a brand new electrical entrant in a number 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.
