'Dude, where's my truck?' Scout returns as an electric off-roader

Jeep Wranglers, Ford Broncos and Toyota Land Cruisers remain the top off-roaders, but there’s a new player in town with a name that hasn’t been seen on American roads since 1980: Scout Motors.

At a live-streamed event in Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday evening, Scout debuted two new concept vehicles: the Terra, an electric pickup truck, and the Traveller, an electric SUV. Both wear styling reminiscent of the International Harvester Scout, a rough-and-tumble off-road truck from the 1960s and '70s.

But despite the throwback Americana looks, these new Scouts have German parentage.

Scout CEO Scott Keogh told ABC Audio that Volkswagen acquired the rights to the Scout name when its heavy-duty truck division bought Navistar, a descendant of the International Harvester company. Keogh said he sees off-road focused trucks as a way to grow VW’s market share in the United States, by combining a recognizable name with a growing market for electric vehicles.

“So – iconic brand, obviously people love it, and it makes sense to bring it back,” Keogh said. “I think the second reason, of course, is the timing. In effect, you have a big transition in the marketplace into electrification.”

The pace of EV adoption has slowed in recent months, but the segment is still growing. New data shows electric vehicle registrations for the month of August are up 18% from a year ago. That means EVs now account for 8.6% of the light vehicle market, according to S&P Global.

Even still, the return of Scout Motors was unexpected for many who follow the auto industry.

“Outside a core group of superfans, the name has kind of fallen a little bit to the wayside,” said automotive analyst Chad Kirchner. “To kind of resurrect an old brand, completely separate of what’s in the Volkswagen portfolio already, is a bit of a surprise.”

But Keogh said a modern interpretation of the Scout is exactly what many American car buyers are looking for right now.

“You've seen a revitalization of, let's say, ‘let's get America outdoors again’ types of products. Things like the [Ford] Bronco, things like the Toyota Land Cruiser,” said Keogh.

“It’s also not surprising that’s the market they’d want to go after,” said Kirchner.

"I was only very lightly aware of Scout as a brand," said Tyler Lund, a father of three who owns an electric Rivian SUV. Lund also runs a YouTube channel called "EVentureFamily," which focuses on how EVs fare on road trips, camping excursions and in family life. He said news of Scout's resurrection appealed to him less because of the company's heritage, and more because of its plans to build an EV.

"It was more embracing a different mindset as an electric brand," Lund told ABC Audio.

“Off-roading and overlanding, that kind of lifestyle, was starting to grow in popularity before the pandemic,” said Kirchner, “but once everybody couldn’t go anywhere where people were, it really started to take off.”

Keogh said Volkswagen is the “founder and investor” of the new Scout brand. Earlier this year, the automotive giant broke ground on a new South Carolina factory, set to build the new Scouts once they enter production.

VW already has its own electric vehicle architecture, known as the MEB platform, which underpins vehicles like the ID.4 SUV and the ID. Buzz electric bus. But Keogh said the Traveller and the Terra ride on their own unique platform.

The Traveller and the Terra are both all-wheel drive, with electric motors on the front and rear axles. Keogh said those motors can launch the trucks from a dead stop to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, and are good for approximately 350 miles of electric range. As an option, Scout said both trucks will be available with a gasoline-powered generator that acts as a “range extender,” kicking in to recharge the electric motors when the battery gets low. The extender, Keogh estimates, could add “upwards of 150 miles” to the trucks’ range.

“The world would have weeped had we just taken an off-the-shelf platform from whatever … and just put a Scout logo on it,” said Keogh.

Earlier this year, VW announced a $5 billion investment in Rivian, a startup electric vehicle manufacturer that makes a luxury electric pickup and SUV. As part of the deal, the two companies will share EV platforms and vehicle software.

“Rivian has all the hardware and the software, Volkswagen has all the expertise of actually knowing how to build cars,” Kirchner said.

When asked whether VW’s involvement with Rivian will create internal competition with Scout, Keogh said the market can accommodate both brands.

“In terms of the overlap, it's not as significant as one might seem on the surface, honestly. Yes, it's an SUV and yes, it's a pickup truck, but that's – that's quite a big, that's quite a, you know, a big area to play in,” said Keogh.

VW’s investment in Rivian also infuses the EV startup with money to produce cheaper models. Rivian said they plan to start selling the R2, a midsize electric SUV, for $45,000 starting in 2026. An even cheaper R3 model is set to go on sale after that.

“So as Rivian adds the R2 and the R3, it kind of makes you question, OK, how’s Scout going to succeed? And I don’t have a good answer,” said Kirchner.

Tyler Lund of EVentureFamily says he already put down a deposit to reserve a Rivian R2. But he also expressed some concern that Rivian, as a startup, would be able to deliver the vehicle to market in the timeframe it promised.

"The market could change by that time," says Lund. Speaking ahead of Thursday's launch event, he said he'd "absolutely" consider a Scout EV instead of an R2.

Scout is targeting a starting price under $60,000 for both its models, before federal and state electric vehicle incentives. That's cheaper than what Rivian currently offers, but higher than the forthcoming R2. Scout aims to start production in 2027.

Where Scout and Rivian will overlap, according to Keogh, is with technology. As part of the investment, VW and Rivian are set to form a 50-50 joint venture with the intention of developing an EV software architecture. Keogh said that technology will appear in Scout trucks.

“Our vehicle will have a modern zonal architecture … anticipated to be one of the – let's say one of the first on this architecture coming out of the joint venture,” said Keogh.

Technology aside, Keogh said his engineers have made an effort to preserve some of the mechanical simplicity that the original Scout possessed, with things like mechanical door handles and physical switches.

“I think Americans feel with AI, with software in everything, it's like, you know, it's a little bit like ‘dude, where's my truck?’” said Keogh.