According to Volkswagen, “Scouts go first. Scouts go farther. Scouts always come back to lead the way.”
Now it looks like the Scout, Volkswagen’s (VWAGY) – Get Free Report electric reboot of the iconic vehicle, will be coming this way when the weather turns warm.
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The original Scout was launched in late 1960 by International Harvester as a competitor for the two-door Jeep CJ 4×4.
Early advertising billed the Scout as “a whole new idea in low-cost transportation,” and the vehicle is considered the forerunner of the SUV.
Production of the Scout ended in 1980. International Harvester is now known as Navistar International and is part of Volkswagen’s Traton Group.
‘There is a Scout in all of us’: VW
Two years ago, Volkswagen said it was going to introduce an electric version of the Scout and tweeted that “production will start in 2026.”
And then the German carmaker teased a reveal in a New Year video entitled “There is a Scout in All of Us.”
“From the time we ventured out of caves,” a narrator intones, “humanity has been propelled by one simple question: Where do we go from here?”
The video shows all kinds of people doing all kinds of activities in all kinds of terrains, while the voiceover tells us that “scouts shun comfortable, ignore uncertainty, laugh at difficulty.”
“This is the moment, this is the call, this is the truck,” the narrator says. The video fades to black and ends with the words “Revealing Summer 2024.”
In November, Austrian media reported that Scout had chosen the automotive contact manufacturer Magna Steyr to develop the first wave of vehicles.
Magna Steyr has reportedly produced more than four million vehicles across 31 different model designs, including the G-Class by Mercedes-Benz (DDAIF) – Get Free Report and the Ocean SUV for Fisker (FSR) – Get Free Report.
Getting the Scout to market
Scout CEO Scott Keogh told Automotive News last month that the collaboration with Magna was a “good, efficient way to get the car to market on time.”
“But now Scout engineers are in the lead. We’re driving it,” he said.
Keogh, former head of Volkswagen Group of America, said Scout’s body-on-frame electric SUV is on track for a full unveiling in the third quarter of 2024. Production is slated for roughly late 2026, with sales expected to begin soon after.
The SUV will be the first to launch, Keogh said, followed by the pickup truck “six, seven months after.”
Scout Motors will build its electric SUV and pickup truck at a new $2 billion plant in Blythewood, S.C.
On Dec. 12 the company also said it would set up the Scout Innovation Center in Novi, Mich., to house Scout Motors’ product, design and engineering teams.
In addition, Burkhard Huhnke joined Scout as chief technical officer. Huhnke had previously worked at Fisker. He also spent 20 years with Volkswagen Group and held leadership roles within engineering and R&D.
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