Scout (SUV Brand)

VW's new brand Scout Motors has revealed its first two EVs

The US-only Volkswagen spin-off brand showcases its first SUV and pickup truck

VW’s US-only spin-off brand Scout Motors has launched its first two models, although it's currently referring to them both as “production-intent concepts”. Introducing the Traveler SUV and Terra truck.

The design is based on the original Scout vehicles built in the 1960s and ‘70s, thusly both have a very retro look. The in-house body-on-frame chassis features a solid rear axle and locking diffs front and back.

Scout says its electric motors will generate 1,000lb ft torque delivered via its four-wheel-drive system, helping both the Traveler and the Terra to conquer the 0-60mph sprint in about 3.5 seconds.

No idea how big the battery is, but Scout reckons the Traveler and the Terra will be capable of up to 350 miles of range. They’ll be built on an 800V electrical architecture and will support up to 350kW rapid charging. They’ll also have bi-directional charging.

 
Scout Motors on trucks and SUVs: "you can't get into this segment as a poser"

VW-backed EV company is still on track for a 2027 launch, and it’ll be using Rivian software

As if it didn’t have enough brands under its umbrella already, the Volkswagen Group recently announced plans to enter the North American pickup truck and SUV markets with a new marque that it’s calling Scout Motors.

Scout was the name given to International Harvester’s range of vehicles in the 1960s and 70s, so why is VW now bringing it back as a separate brand?

“If you look around the group portfolio, you see some really great brands and a bunch of really great models, but none of them are doing what we're doing,” Scout Motors strategy director Ryan Decker told TG. “So, from a group perspective, all I'll say is that's white space. White space segments, white space products, white space target customers.

“Looking at it from the Scout perspective, if you're going to go and attack that white space, you have to do it with credibility. You can't get into this segment as a poser. You can’t have poser products or a poser brand. On the brand side, bang, we’ve got Scout. That’s the OG in the segment. You have people walking around here talking about how they went camping, hunting or fishing with their grandpa in the original cars. Scout has that spirit.

 
Scout Motors design boss: production cars will look “very close” to concepts

TG asks Chris Benjamin about penning a new generation of Scouts, and for his opinion on the Tesla Cybertruck…

Good News for those of you who liked the look of the two Scout Motors concepts unveiled back in October last year. “The production cars will look very close to the models we showed at CES,” design boss Chris Benjamin said about the Traveler SUV and the Terra Truck that’ll eventually arrive in 2027.

“I know what the differences are,” Benjamin told TG. “I think they'll be pretty imperceptible to most people.”

This is excellent news. Both the SUV and pickup are rugged-looking body-on-frame EVs (with a range-extending petrol engine available) and combine modern LED lighting with boxy shapes and proper old-school door handles.

“There's something exciting about having a heritage and a history to pull from,” said Benjamin, who joined Scout in May 2023 having previously led the interior design team at Stellantis in North America.

“You've definitely seen some examples of that being done the wrong way, where the cars are just exact retro copies of the old thing. We certainly didn't want to do that, but it did give us a very clear runway of things to be inspired by. And as creative people, we revel in that. You get to see and understand the brand from a historical perspective, and then you find all of these surprises and delights in the history of the vehicles.”

So, what exactly have the reborn Scouts pulled from the International Harvester vehicles of the 1960s and 70s?

“The biggest thing we always start with are the iconic proportions,” says Benjamin. “If you look at a Scout II, for example, all of the volume is sort of shifted onto the rear wheels. There’s a super short front overhang, a good distance on the dash-to-axle, and then that DLO [daylight opening, essentially the window line viewed from the side] is very distinctive where it has that kick up at the rear. We captured that on the Traveller SUV.

 
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