The Volkswagen Group gets a new brand: Scout. Exclusively for electric pickups and SUVs. The heavy vehicles for helicopter moms should be particularly robust and suitable for off-road use.
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Scout: New VW brand for electric pickups and SUVs
© Arno Antlitz/VW
The Volkswagen Group already includes an almost unmanageable variety of brands. But now there is another brand within Volkswagen: Scout. VW announced this via Twitter and the Handelsblatt reported on it. With Scout, VW wants to significantly expand its business in the USA and expand on the local car market: According to the Handelsblatt, there is talk of a market share of 4 percent now to 10 percent in 2030.
“Success in the SUV & pick-up segment is key for further profitable growth in the US And now we have a unique opportunity for market entry”, our CFO Arno Antlitz about the electric comeback of the iconic brand #Scout: https://t.co/wCXi2xvjtG
— Volkswagen Group (@VWGroup) May 11, 2022
Under the brand label Scout, VW only wants to sell electrically powered pickups and SUVs, which are said to be robust and off-road. The vehicle category pickups also already specifies the region in which Scout should be active: North America. In Germany, on the other hand, there should be no scout vehicles.
VW wants to set up a separate, independent company in the USA before the end of 2022. The first prototypes are scheduled to be presented in 2023. Series production is scheduled to start in 2026. The electrified Scout brand will rely on a new technical platform concept “with which more authentic pick-ups and RUVs” can be realized than with the existing portfolio of the Volkswagen Group. The “modular electrification toolkit” (MEB) used for the ID family will therefore not form the basis for the Scout vehicles.
However, it will still be a few years before Americans and Canadians can actually buy “Scouts”. The first pickup and the first SUV should probably be available in 2026.
Electric pickups are all the rage in pickup country USA, the top dogs General Motors and Ford are celebrating great success with their corresponding models and Tesla is also planning an electric pickup with the Cybertruck – a project that, as is so often the case at Tesla, has been massively delayed. Rivian is also pushing into this market. Amazon also has a stake in Rivian.
Now it’s official: Volkswagen will be launching a fully electric pick-up in the USA. The background to the decision explained @Herbert_Diess now to CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg. pic.twitter.com/Sho3vaHSvP
— Robin Engelhardt (@Elektro_Robin) May 11, 2022
SUV-like cars were sold in the US under the “Scout” brand name until the early 1980s, according to the Handelsblatt. Then the production ended, the naming rights belonged to the truck manufacturer Navistar. VW bought Navistar two years ago.