Scout Has Returned After 44 Years and Brought Electric Trucks With It
Volkswagen is resurrecting the iconic American brand as an off-road electric truck company.
When Volkswagen bought the heavy truck company Navistar in 2021, it found something very cool in the filing cabinet.
As the successor to International Harvester, Navistar still owned the intellectual property for the iconic International Scout, which was last built in 1980.
Volkswagen didnât waste much time announcing that it was resurrecting the Scout name with a modern twist. It would form the basis of an electric truck brand to compete with the likes of Rivian and Hummer with off-road pickups and SUVs built at a new factory in South Carolina.
The newly minted Scout Motors broke ground in Blytheville, S.C., in February and has now taken the wraps off its first two models: the Terra pickup and Traveler SUV.
Both feature styling inspired by the classic Scouts, with boxy shapes highlighted by rounded corners and tall, flat hoods. They are technically concepts and production is not slated to begin until 2027, but Scout says what you see is pretty much what youâre going to get.
They are built on the same chassis, which features body-on-frame construction and a solid rear axle that is meant to make them serious trucks. Most electric pickups and SUVS, including the Tesla Cybertuck and Rivian R1S, feature a more carlike unibody design with fully independent suspensions that have limitations on the roughest terrain.
They are still in development and all of the details havenât been finalized, but Scout said the four-wheel drivetrain will have a robust 1,000 lb-ft of torque that will allow the Terra to tow more than 10,000 pounds, accelerate to 60 mph in a sports-car-like 3.5 seconds and climb a 45% slope.
The driving range is estimated to be 350 miles per charge but, in an unexpected development, Scout will offer them with a range-extending system called the Harvester that uses a small gasoline-powered engine to increase it 500 miles.
The engine wonât be connected to the wheels through a transmission and will only be used as a generator to help charge the battery. This means a driver can make short stops for gas on long trips instead of lengthy stops to charge, or go far off the beaten path where there are no chargers at all.
Another old-school feature will be an available front bench seat that turns the two-row trucks into six-passenger vehicles. The Terraâs bed is five-and-a-half feet long, which is large for a midsize pickup, and the Traveler has a horizontally split tailgate with a swing-out spare tire carrier on the outside.
There are two digital displays on the dashboard, including a touchscreen for the infotainment system, but also a long row of knobs and buttons for the most common controls that are easier to use when driving or wearing gloves. Roof options include a panoramic glass window and a fabric Cabana Top that can be rolled open wide enough to turn the trucks into something close to convertibles.
Prices are set to start at less than $60,000, which is far less than what Rivians and Hummers go for today, but Scout didnât specify exactly what level of equipment youâll get at that price.
Scout will also have an old foe to contend with when sales begin, as Jeep plans to launch the very similar Recon electric truck next year. The original Scout was built to take on the Jeep CJ, but ultimately lost that battle.The Traveler features a split tailgate
America loves a comeback story, but weâll have to wait a bit to see if that still applies when itâs a German-owned electric truck.
