The teaser video shows a roof-mounted compass meant to hint at the truck and SUV concepts’ off-road capabilities.
September 4, 2024 03:23
- Scout Motors has confirmed that it will unveil its first new-generation vehicle on October 24, exactly 44 years after the International Scout II was launched.
- Now Volkswagen’s American brand will launch concept versions of its electric SUV and pickup truck before building production versions in South Carolina.
- Volkswagen acquired the rights to the Scout name in 2020 when it acquired Navistar (International Harvester was renamed Navistar in 1986).
We knew they were coming, and now we know when. On October 24, Scout Motors will unveil two concept cars designed to give us a taste of what production electric vehicles will look like when they roll off the production line in South Carolina in 2026.
The confirmation was released on social media in the form of a simple teaser video showing a roof-mounted compass with a stylized Scout name printed below the rotating compass and the text “Revealed 10.24.2024” below that.
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This date is significant for fans of the original International Scout, a formidable off-road competitor to vehicles like the Ford Bronco and a precursor to the modern SUV. Due to International’s financial problems, the last Scout II was built on October 24, 1980.
The Illinois-based company reorganized and changed its name to Navistar in 1986, while Volkswagen acquired the rights to the Scout name in 2020 when Navistar was acquired by Traton Group, VW’s commercial vehicle division that also owns MAN and Scania.
The new Scout Motors company hasn’t released too many technical details about its upcoming products, but it has previously shown a pair of sketches that give us a side view of an SUV with a large ground clearance and very little overhang, and a pickup truck with a long wheelbase.
The two models, clearly designed to steal sales from Rivian as well as Ford, Chevrolet and Jeep, will be produced at a new $2 billion plant in Blythewood, South Carolina, which will be able to produce up to 200,000 vehicles per year.
If the idea of Volkswagen reviving the Scout brand to compete with Rivian seemed odd, it became even stranger earlier this year when the German company agreed to invest $5 billion in the American automaker. But VW said it remains committed to the Scout brand even with the Rivian deal, and that the Scout model could very well benefit from Rivian technology.
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