Most young people haven’t heard of a rugged, boxy off-road vehicle called Scout. Volkswagen (VWAPY), the company behind the brand, is pushing to bring it back from its nostalgic roots and into the mainstream electric vehicles era. At a splashy event in Franklin, Tenn. last month, Scout Motors, a company solely owned by Volkswagen launched in 2022, unveiled two new vehicles: an SUV called the Scout Traveler and a pickup truck named the Scout Terra.
Both vehicles will get brand new powertrain options, either full-EV or a range-extended version. The vehicles will be highly customizable and have options for auxiliary lighting, steps, fold-back tops, off-road bumpers with recovery points, a heavy-duty winch, bench seats and other features. The market for these kinds of vehicles is booming, and automakers see a big opportunity in the space.
“We want to bring the best of the past ideals forward, not some warmed-over nostalgic haze,” Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh told a crowd of 300 journalists, influencers and guests at last month’s event. “Real ideals like respect, community and, of course, trust.
The new Scouts won’t began production until late 2027 but have already drawn a considerable number of $100 reservations, according to the company. About a third of the reservations are for the Scout Traveler SUV, and two-thirds are for the Scout Terra truck. The Traveler’s retail price (without incentives) will start at $60,000, and the Terra will start around $51,500. Those prices will likely change as we get nearer to the production date.
Scout was first introduced by a company called International Harvester in 1961. It was originally a two-door SUV that competed with the likes of Jeep, Bronco and AMC and featured things like a fold-down windshield, chunky buttons and removable hardtops.
You may see a small handful of old Scouts on the road today, as they are popular because they’re easy to repair and iconically nostalgic. The vehicle recently re-entered the public eye after a YouTube video of the vice presidential candidate Tim Walz working on his own 1979 Scout made the rounds in September.
“Scout was certainly ahead of its time in inventing the SUV segment and tapping into the American psyche of exploration,” CEO Keogh said at last month’s event. “In order to unlock this magical brand with its vast potential, it’s best to do it as a startup with a running start and an absolutely clean sheet.”
Scout Motors is up against some tough competition and entering a relatively crowded market for electric SUVs and trucks. While the design harkens back to those tactile, button-laden days of the 1970s and 1980s, the modern underpinnings will still be software-driven and EV-focused, according to the company.
It’s clear that Scout Motors has taken pages from the likes of Rivian, Ford (F), Jeep and Range Rover and packaged them in a friendly-looking, off-road SUV with nostalgic nods to the days of the “8-day-a-week-truck,” a tagline formerly associated with Volkswagen’s Bus.
While Volkswagen has had some ups and downs in recent history as EV sales fluctuate and the auto industry scrambles to keep up with shifting tides, it has made a significant investment in Scout, breaking ground on a multibillion-dollar factory in South Carolina in February. Scout is investing $2 billion and receiving $1.3 billion in tax incentives to build the new vehicles in Blythewood, N.C., just 20 miles outside of Columbia.
Volkswagen cars used to be everywhere in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s when its iconic buses and affordable Beetles were the best-selling imported vehicles. Today, the U.S. auto market is largely dominated by Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda, and the German carmaker holds just a 5 percent market share.
While the electric Volkswagen ID.4 has sold relatively well, many buyers have been holding out for the upcoming ID Buzz, the electric bus with a nostalgic design first debuted seven years ago.
Dealers aren’t pleased with Scout Motors’ plans to sell the new Terra and Traveler via retail locations—much like Tesla (TSLA) and Rivian—rather than using the typical dealer model. They are already up in arms over the direct-to-consumer model, and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) threatened legal action against Scout just a few hours after last month’s announcement, stating that it “will challenge this and all attempts to sell direct in courthouses and statehouses across the country,” according to Reuters.
Like other modern software-heavy passenger cars, Scout will offer over-the-air updates and have mobile technicians and “Scout Workshop” locations to handle any issues that arise. While the models unveiled at the event in Tennessee are close to production, there may be some changes to the final versions that will land in customers’ hands in 2028.
