Update: The Scout Traveler and Terra have been revealed, and they look as good as we hoped. Check out our full coverage here. The original preview story continues below.
Today, at around at 5:00 p.m. ET, every car site will have pictures of two concept vehicles marking the return of the 44-years-defunct Scout nameplate. But it’s not like the old assembly lines that shut down in 1980 are being fired up, or anybody’s blowing dust off the old Scout blueprints. The Scout we’re about to meet is an all-new electric vehicle company. The most important distinction between it and the wave of other EV startups we’ve seen in the last decade is that this one is wholly owned and backed by one of the world’s biggest automakers: Volkswagen.
It’s almost too obvious to restate, but for the sake of complete contextualization: The rising relevance of EVs has created quite a variety of interesting disruptions in the car biz lately. We’ve seen a few brands pop up and disappear, some get real traction, sub-brands of big companies spun off to become their own entities, and of course, a few mainstream automakers developing new model families around electrification, partitioned off from the rest of the lineup.
But a bluechip German automaker building brand-new U.S. facilities to resurrect an old American model name as its own EV brand? That’s a new one.
Part of me sees the logic. Americans are insatiably hungry for classically handsome trucks and SUVs, but VW doesn’t have anything that fits the bill. It doesn’t carry the right brand image to introduce one, either. Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s electric vehicle strategy has been a little confusing (or should I say Voltswagen—remember that one?). VW committed huge amounts of resources to such initiatives only to ultimately pivot back and prioritize gasoline. The ID.4‘s had a mixed-at-best reception and while people seem to love the look of the nostalgia-nodding ID.Buzz… I’m not convinced many enthusiasts will plunk down for a $65,000 minivan with 200-and-change miles of range.
The VW group could use more compelling electric vehicles, it could use stronger utility-focused offerings in America, and building a product that is both here in the U.S. gives the company the chance to price it competitively by avoiding import tariffs. I think it’s worth noting, though, that electric trucks aren’t as hot now as they were when VW announced Scout’s revival. We’ll have to see how it pans out when these launch, which is still quite a while from now for the 2026 model year.
As for why they call it a Scout, well, same reason we have 10 Fast and Furious movies. It’s easier to sell something with some level of recognition than to stoke up a fresh brand out of thin air.
How VW Got the Name
The answer to how VW can call this new creation a Scout is a little more complicated. But I’ll run through a high-level history of Scout and the tractor brand International Harvester that it was initially sold under to give you an appreciation for the situation. In the 1920s and ’30s, IH built commercial ag machines like tractors and corn binders and enjoyed a bit of a boom after WWII. As the century progressed, the company diversified into construction equipment, lawn tractors, and at the beginning of the ’60s, an SUV called the Scout.
At this moment, from a marketing perspective, the Scout was ahead of its time. Decades before SUVs would be defacto family cars, the original Scout 80 was a rugged little rig you could buy at agriculture equipment dealers and theoretically use for farm work during the day and grocery-getting in the evening.
The truck was primitive, slow, and difficult to drive. I briefly owned a ’64; even by the standards of the time it was not for everyone. A fast-following second generation (really, more like a gen-1.5) called the Scout 800 came with significantly more creature comforts. But the Scout II that ran through the 1970s was where the model made a huge leap in drivability. Finally, with a complete interior and enough power to get out of its own way, the Scout II was a lot more appealing than its predecessors.
Still, by then the Ford Bronco and Chevy Blazer had arrived with some major advantages. For one thing, they were objectively superior. And for another, I suspect it was easier for families to find their way to those mainstream dealerships than it was to get them in the door of an IH store selling family vehicles alongside combines and tractors.
But what really killed the Scout, and basically IH, was a five-month UAW strike in 1979-’80. The company lost so much money that it sold its farm equipment business to competitor Tenneco Inc. in 1984. Tenneco had a controlling stake in another ag equipment company called the Case Corporation, which it merged with the operations bought from International to form Case IH—still an active agricultural machine brand today.
The remains of International Harvester became Navistar International Corp in 1986, which went on to be a major player in the commercial truck space selling big rigs, buses, and other such vehicles as branded Internationals through the ’90s and ’00s. It also made quite a few diesel engines, including tons that you’ll find in older Ford pickup trucks.
In 2016, a German truck manufacturer called Traton bought a sizeable stake in Navistar. As soon as 2018 the Germans indicated interest in buying the whole company, and in 2021 Traton completed its merger with Navistar, acquiring all Navistar common shares for $3.7 billion. The Scout name must have been a line item somewhere in that deal.
Traton, by the way, is owned by Volkswagen. And finally, the dots connect: VW had got itself one slightly used, lightly recognizable, American SUV brand. You might remember this particularly prescient post from ’21: “VW Now Owns the Scout Name, Might Use It On an Electric Off-Road Truck.” Indeed. Last year, Scout was officially unveiled as a “yes it’s happening” EV brand, and that’s when we first heard that the company would be trotting out a pickup and an SUV under the old brand name International Harvester cooked up more than 60 years ago.
What to Expect
At the reveal planned for October 24, we’ve been promised a look at concepts for both those variants. A representative of the brand told me we can expect “about 85%” of what the production-spec will look like. I know, that’s a little abstract. But take it to mean that whatever we do see will not be the final production form. Besides the vehicles, I’m told we’ll get “a couple of business announcements and some product specs you can expect on the production vehicles,” so stay tuned.
If the new Scout can split the difference between a Tesla sedan’s practicality and a Rivian’s off-roady coolness for less-than-a-ton-of-money, we may really have something cool on our hands. Frankly, at this point I’m skeptical. But I’d love to be wowed with a low list price and some earnest capability.
My predictions for the new Scout: 2026 availability, base price in the $60,000 neighborhood but much-more-expensive models are all you can get until 2027, max range of around 400 miles, at least one trim that can exceed a Rivian’s max payload capacity of 2,000 pounds, and one gimmicky feature for TikTok like a detachable trail-scouting drone that sends a FPV video to the infotainment screen. Actually, that last thing would be kind of sick. Scout team, you can have that idea for free.
Speaking of Rivian, it too is commercially linked with VW. Rivian’s people did not have a comment for me on whether any platform or tech sharing will be happening.
More ‘Obscure’ Than ‘Iconic’
As for what is for sure happening around Scout’s launch… I’ve seen a lot of sizzle reels and promotional content leading up to Thursday’s concept reveal using the word “iconic.” An “iconic name,” an “iconic design” … now I’m not trying to get myself uninvited from the reveal party, but there’s a little retconning going on there. A classic Scout is very cool, and they can be capable in the right situation. But they’re obscure—kind of the opposite of iconic.
I’ve owned a long-wheelbase ’75 Scout (known as a Traveller) since 2016. People love it everywhere I stop and invariably ask what year Bronco it is. While the values of classic Broncos, Blazers, Wagoneers, and classic Land Cruisers have been soaring for the last decade, Scouts stayed dirt cheap until relatively recently. That’s because nobody knew (knows) what the heck they are and not all that many of them survived long enough to be recognized or restored.
Getting real value out of the Scout brand name is going to be an interesting challenge for the company. Along with the “iconic” verbiage, I’ve seen a lot of marketing imagery connecting the new Scout Motors with the old Scouts of the ’60s and ’70s. Anecdotally, most of the comments I’ve seen from fans of the old trucks have been complaints that the new one’s an EV. On today’s internet, the grumpiest people are usually the loudest. But still, knowing a few owners of old Scouts, I cannot imagine any of them buying a brand-new anything, let alone an expensive electric car.
I guess Scout Motors must be hoping it can inception the idea that IH Scouts are an essential part of classic Americana for its actual customers—presumably, people who like the idea of a Rivian but need a little more anachronism to get on board. As for current caretakers of old Scouts lining up to finally upgrade, yeah, no, I don’t see it happening. The whole appeal of an original Scout in 2024 is that it’s the complete antithesis of digital. That said, there is that one particularly compelling line in a recent blog post from Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh:
“… we chose to build something body-on-frame, where you flip a switch to turn on the lights, rather than flipping through a menu on a screen.”
Switches? A real frame? Maybe the cynics will be appeased after all.
Anyway, the main thing I set out to do here was to provide some context to enhance your appreciation for the Scout Motors reveal—the big car news of the week. See you in the comment section on the “this is it” post soon.
Want to talk about old 4x4s? Email the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.