VW Scout: Everything You Need To Know About The EV Upstart

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that the Volkswagen Group is resurrecting the Scout brand. Scout Motors was officially established in 2022 as a subsidiary of the VW Group, but the car won't be known as the Volkswagen Scout. Even though Scout was originally used as the model name for these legendary off-road vehicles, it has now become the brand name. There will be a Scout electric pickup and a Scout electric SUV, and we're guessing several additional models further down the line.

The original International Harvester Scout went out of production in 1980, which means there are now entire generations who have no idea it even existed.

That's why CarBuzz is looking at Scout's history and what we can expect from the new all-electric brand.

As its name suggests, the International Harvester Company supplied farming equipment. It was officially formed in 1902 when the owners of three smaller companies decided to pool their efforts and started a new company called IHC. Their first successful product was the small Farmall tractor, available in several guises. Its first car was the Auto Buggy produced from 1912-1917, but its main focus was trucks, starting with the Auto Wagon in 1907.

Like many other companies of the time, it was involved in the First World War. IHC had a large dealer network, and the American military relied on it to build machine gun carts and wagons.

When the world stopped warring with itself for the first time, IHC started branching out into school buses.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler and his band of reprehensible cronies went on a violent Polish vacation, and most of the world started shooting at each other again. America only joined the war in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and America's industrial complex changed in quick succession. The US military turned to the automotive industry to help as much as possible. Other brands built the famous Willys Jeep, while International Harvester used its factories to make artillery shells, bulldozers, and truck engines for the war.

If you know the history of the Jeep Wrangler, you'll know that it's the oldest of the military-based off-roaders. Jeep only started using the Wrangler name in the 1980s, and before that, it was known as the CJ, which stood for "Civilian Jeep." There was a lot of money to be made in the SUV and pickup market, and International Harvester noticed this.

Unfortunately, its first SUV was a giant flop. Back then, America was in good shape, and the average person had almost no interest in pickups and SUVs. They were tools and nothing more, which is odd considering the opposite is true today. The only SUV that managed to sell was the Jeep CJ.

So, IHC built an SUV and pickup truck more closely aligned with what Jeep was doing. The Scout launched as an SUV and a pickup truck, and various models were eventually made. The Scout II had a removable hard top and could be ordered with a soft top. Throughout its life cycle, spanning from 1961-1980, International Harvester added luxuries like a glove box and made various engine updates.

IHC was eventually killed by three things. Its management wanted to branch out into too many products, and there were no new technological innovations to improve the rugged SUV.

In 1979, it employed a new CEO to streamline the business, and Archie McCardell did a great job of that, but not without reprieve. He cut several production lines, leading to many job cuts. Despite many people losing their jobs, the company gave McCardell a million-dollar bonus, which angered union members.

This led to a strike, which cost the company over $1 billion in today's money.

Many of the company's assets were sold, and the rest were put into a holding company called Navistar. Navistar eventually ended up under the ownership of Traton in 2021. Traton is basically the holding group for the commercial vehicle arm of the Volkswagen Group, and that's how VW ended up with the Scout name, synonymous with the rugged utility vehicle.

The first rumors of a new Scout first surfaced in September 2021. Details were sketchy, but we knew VW had the know-how to build a decent off-roader. To stay true to the original product, we expected a pickup and SUV, which is precisely what we got.

The big question on everyone's lips was the naming structure. Would it be called the New International Scout, the International Scout VW, or the VW Scout EV?

In May 2022, the Volkswagen Group announced that Scout would be a standalone brand and produce an electric pickup truck and an all-electric Scout SUV, a nice departure from faux off-roaders like the Volkswagen ID.4.

A month after Scout Motors was officially announced, VW announced the man in charge of the new all-electric brand. Scout CEO Scott Keogh is the perfect man for the job. Formerly the President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America and CEO of Volkswagen North American Region, Keogh knows what the American buying public wants.

With Scout Motors officially formed and a CEO running things, the next logical step was some concept vehicles and a place to build the cars. Scout was initially tied to Magna Steyr, but Scott Keogh decided to keep the brand American, and VW is investing $2 billion in South Carolina.

The Scout assembly plant will be built 20 miles north of Columbia in South Carolina. It beat out 74 other possible sites. South Carolina really came to the party, giving Scout a $400 million grant, $650 million in additional funding for local infrastructure upgrades, a $25 million training center, and a $200 million loan for soil stabilization. Because Scout electric vehicles will be powered by batteries using locally sourced components, they'll be eligible for the maximum tax credit from the government.

As for the vehicles, we don't know much apart from what we've learned from a few teasers. These rugged EVs won't share a platform with any existing VW electric vehicle. They'll either be built on a dedicated platform or use VW's next-generation Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which will be ready in 2026. This matches up with the South Carolina Facility timeline, which will start producing cars in late 2026.

The new company is on the right track. It approached the harshest critics to ensure its cars hit all the correct targets. VW gave a presentation to classic Scout owners, and they were impressed.

Keogh has since stated that the first prototypes will be seen on the road in 2023, and the first model will be introduced in 2024. We're guessing the pickup will be first since that segment is so hot right now. GMC launched the Hummer EV pickup ahead of the SUV, and similar can be said of Rivian's R1T and R1S rollout, but who knows? An electric Bronco alternative sounds epic.

We know Scout will start with two vehicles. Since it approached classic customers, we're sure it will have decent ground clearance, payload capacity, range, and off-road ability. As we've said before, EVs are perfect for off-roading, and Scout Motors might be the first to prove that.

It's still too early to tell, but from what we know, the Scout name is back in a big way to have another go at the battle with Jeep it lost a few decades ago.