VW’s Scout confirms $40,000 electrical SUV, plans $2B South Carolina plant

Volkswagen’s new Scout Motors EV division on Friday confirmed that its first mannequin might be a $40,000 electrical SUV to be constructed at a brand new $2 billion manufacturing unit close to Columbia, South Carolina.

Scout, which plans to construct rugged EVs impressed by the traditional Worldwide Harvester Scout SUV produced from 1960 to 1980, mentioned in a press launch that the manufacturing unit will produce 200,000 autos yearly when at full capability, and can create not less than 4,000 everlasting jobs.

Groundbreaking for the South Carolina manufacturing unit is deliberate for mid-2023, with manufacturing anticipated to begin by the tip of 2026, the model mentioned. The primary mannequin produced might be a “rugged utility automobile” or “RUV,” Scout CEO Scott Keogh mentioned in an interview with TechCrunch, adopted “in fast succession” by a bigger electrical pickup truck.

Teaser for Scout SUV idea

Keogh mentioned the utility automobile goals for a base worth within the $40,000 vary, whereas the pickup might be “a bit north of there.”

Each fashions are because of be unveiled in 2024. That will characterize a slight delay. Volkswagen introduced Scout in Might 2022, and it mentioned then that first prototypes can be proven in 2023. VW sellers had been utterly shocked by the announcement, which successfully bypasses them for a Tesla-like gross sales mannequin. The 2026 manufacturing timeline has remained constant all through, nonetheless.

Additionally constant is easy, squared-off styling. A teaser launched by Scout alongside the manufacturing unit announcement reveals shapes broadly just like the sketches launched by VW in 2022. That design language will assist join the fashionable Scout EVs to their Nineteen Sixties inspiration.

1971-80 Worldwide Harvester Scout

Produced by Worldwide Harvester, an organization largely identified for tractors and business autos, the unique Scout was one of many first SUVs. VW acquired the rights to the Scout identify when it purchased Worldwide Harvester successor firm Navistar in 2020.

Like the unique, the Scout EVs will each use a body-on-frame platform, VW beforehand confirmed. This platform will doubtless be unique to Scout, however may borrow parts from different VW Group platforms. The mum or dad firm hasn’t dominated out sharing the Scout platform with different manufacturers—and it reportedly may with Audi.

But with so many back-to-basics electrical SUVs within the works—together with a less complicated Rivian R2, and the Jeep Recon—will there be sufficient of a market left by the point Scout arrives?