Volkswagen, via its Scout Motors brand, has just unveiled a first teaser image of its future electric 4×4. It should be launched in 2026 in the United States, and possibly in Europe.
Article updated on November 16, 2022 : That’s it, the teasing around the future 4×4 of Scout Motors, the American brand of Volkswagen began with this photo published by the German group. We can see the silhouette of an SUV, of the 4×4 type with tires off-road and a very high ground clearance. Other than that, no other details have leaked out, so we’ll have to be patient. The launch is not expected before 2026 in the United States, alongside a pickup.
Original article from July 25, 2022 : At Volkswagen, the boss of the American branch of the group has just taken the helm of Scout, the new brand of the German manufacturer specializing in robust SUVs (rugged) and electric pick-ups. Here is all you need to know.
Scout: this name may ring a bell if you’ve been following automotive news for several decades. Indeed, the brand was already present in the United States, from the 60s to the 80s with the legendary Scout from the manufacturer International Harvester. And it is precisely this brand that Volkswagen will relaunch, first in the United States, in order to compete with Rivian (with its R1T and R1S) or even GM (with its Hummer EV) with 100% electric vehicles. And the teasing has just begun.
In a video published earlier by Volkswagen, we can see an original Scout II, with its large 5.6-liter combustion engine, its 150 horsepower and 360 newton meters of torque. The 4×4 indulges in a few crossings around the headquarters of the German group. If we cross the photos of the old Scout II and the sketches published by Volkswagen a few months earlier, we imagine without too much difficulty that the brand’s future electric vehicles will take up many design elements of the Scout of the 70s.
The first two models are expected for 2026, in the United States. It will therefore be a robust SUV (rugged SUV), accompanied by its pick-up variant. The first could overshadow Jeep, while the second could compete head-on with Tesla with its Cybertruck and other American manufacturers who have already marketed this type of vehicle, such as Rivian and GM.
A shoe size to lead Scout
Last week, another news came to us from across the Atlantic: the boss of the American Volkswagen group, Scott Keogh, left his functions to devote himself to the development of the Scout brand. Information that reflects the importance of this brand for the German group, which takes advantage of it to create a dedicated company, in the form of a subsidiary, so as not to simply confine it to a simple range.
It should be noted, moreover, that Volkswagen very recently recovered the rights to use the Scout brand and more precisely in 2020, during the acquisition of Navistar International, an American manufacturer of semi-trailers. What also comes to compete with Tesla and its Semi?
According to wall street journal, the Scout brand plans to produce 250,000 SUVs and pickups per year. That’s a lot, compared, for example, to the small million electric vehicles produced per year by Tesla or the 8.6 million vehicles (all engines and segments combined) by Volkswagen in 2021 worldwide.
Volkswagen hopes that the new Scout brand will allow the German group to take additional market share in the United States in these two segments that are very popular with Americans. If Volkswagen sells a lot of cars around the world, this is less the case in the United States with less than 5% market share, but with 8% market share in the 100% electric market, just behind Tesla. .
Now we just have to wait for Scout to unveil its first two electric cars and Volkswagen should continue to teaser by 2026. We also wonder if the brand will be imported into Europe, which is likely since the borders geographical locations in the automotive industry are increasingly invisible with many makes and models no longer confined to their home market. We just hope that these two vehicles will be less greedy in electrons than the Hummer EV.
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