Photo: Rendering from VW shared with TechCrunch from an unnamed source
Volkswagen eyes the lucrative truck and SUV U.S. market with the revival of the iconic American off-road badge Scout. The Germans will follow Rivian with an all-electric truck-SUV duo and the leaked rendering from the group’s design team shows it means business.
Volkswagen is one of the most powerful car companies in the world and yet it failed miserably in the U.S. This is all the more surprising considering that the Beetle and the Microbus were such huge successes back in the time. Volkswagen’s modern U.S. adventure shows a company that can’t crack the local market and ultimately fails to understand what Americans want.
Volkswagen is determined to change all that and will give it another shot with the revival of the famed Scout badge. This will become a standalone all-electric brand in Volkswagen’s large portfolio and will cater to the U.S. off-roading community with rugged, go-anywhere vehicles. Similar to what Rivian does, Volkswagen’s Scout will start with a pickup truck and SUV duo with a common electric architecture.
According to sources who asked not to be named, Scout will begin producing the two EVs by 2026 and wants to make as many as 250,000 vehicles per year. Volkswagen will make an initial investment of $100 million, which will help create the new company’s structure. More investments will follow as Scout EVs will near production, and the same sources cited by TechCrunch say the funds are possible to come from the private sector and individual investors.
This points to a startup-like structure, which means that Volkswagen will not use any of its existing resources for the new company. Most likely, the future electric Scouts will not use the MEB architecture nor Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant as the production hub. A design sketch supposedly “leaked” by the Volkswagen design team shows a striking resemblance with the Rivian R1T and R1S EVs.
Volkswagen purchased the Scout name two years ago when their Traton subdivision bought the Navistar International. Navistar inherited the Scout brand in 1985 when the International Harvester name was sold along with the farm machinery business. The Scout was one of the industry’s first SUVs, preceding the first-generation Ford Bronco, and it was built for almost two decades, from 1961 to 1980.
Volkswagen is determined to change all that and will give it another shot with the revival of the famed Scout badge. This will become a standalone all-electric brand in Volkswagen’s large portfolio and will cater to the U.S. off-roading community with rugged, go-anywhere vehicles. Similar to what Rivian does, Volkswagen’s Scout will start with a pickup truck and SUV duo with a common electric architecture.
According to sources who asked not to be named, Scout will begin producing the two EVs by 2026 and wants to make as many as 250,000 vehicles per year. Volkswagen will make an initial investment of $100 million, which will help create the new company’s structure. More investments will follow as Scout EVs will near production, and the same sources cited by TechCrunch say the funds are possible to come from the private sector and individual investors.
This points to a startup-like structure, which means that Volkswagen will not use any of its existing resources for the new company. Most likely, the future electric Scouts will not use the MEB architecture nor Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant as the production hub. A design sketch supposedly “leaked” by the Volkswagen design team shows a striking resemblance with the Rivian R1T and R1S EVs.
Volkswagen purchased the Scout name two years ago when their Traton subdivision bought the Navistar International. Navistar inherited the Scout brand in 1985 when the International Harvester name was sold along with the farm machinery business. The Scout was one of the industry’s first SUVs, preceding the first-generation Ford Bronco, and it was built for almost two decades, from 1961 to 1980.
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