Ever since Volkswagen introduced it was reviving Scout as an electric-only model for pickups and SUVs, folks have been questioning what platform the marque will use, and the way it will meet its 2024 unveiling deadline.
The model’s CEO, Scott Keogh, has confirmed the corporate’s first merchandise will probably be a “full-size pickup” and accompanying SUV.
The brand new Scout vary subsequently has the Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and Ram 1500 REV pickup vehicles in its sights.
Aside from their very American-ness, all these autos use a rugged body-on-frame structure. All of Volkswagen’s electrical automobile (EV) platforms are for monocoque vehicles, and the one body-on-frame passenger automobile in its sprawling lineup is the Amarok ute, which is predicated on the Ford Ranger.
Mr Keogh, previously head of Volkswagen in North America, instructed Automotive News the Scout vary will use a “utterly distinctive platform” that’s been engineered and developed from the “floor up”.
Though he didn’t affirm Scout could have a body-on-frame construction, like its opponents, Mr Keogh acknowledged the model will use a “100 per cent succesful, American, sturdy, full platform”.
He additionally refuted the concept Scout would use a by-product of the MEB structure, which underpins every little thing from Cupra Born to the Volkswagen ID.7.
Whereas Scout will launch with its beforehand teased pickup and SUV fashions, Mr Keogh acknowledged that there are “alternatives” in smaller autos however that he’s cautious of getting “sidetracked”.
For now, he believes “lot of fish to fish for in these two [initial categories] and we wish to succeed there”.
When Volkswagen America introduced it was reviving the Scout title in late 2022, it set a goal of getting its preliminary autos in manufacturing by 2026.
With no engineers on Scout’s payroll, or an appropriate platform to make use of, the nascent marque enlisted the companies of Magna, a Canadian automotive provider that additionally does design and engineering consulting, and produces vehicles on contract by way of its Magna Steyr subsidiary in Austria.
Mr Keogh says having Magna on board “was useful at that section to get issues shifting”, though he claims Scout’s engineers are actually “within the lead”.
In accordance with the CEO, design is “85, 90, 95 p.c of the way in which there” with the proportions and exterior styling “dialed in”. To date the corporate has hosted clinics in California, Dallas, and Denver, the place clients had been proven fashions of the brand new vehicles and pictures of the cabin.
“Frankly, the clinics had been a few of the greatest clinics that the Volkswagen Group has ever had, interval, in america,” Mr Keogh claimed.
At current, Scout solely has round 300 staff, though it’s at the moment hiring 50 or so per thirty days. It’s set to interrupt floor on its manufacturing facility in Blythewood, South Carolina early in 2024 with manufacturing prone to start in late 2026.
The SUV will probably be first mannequin to roll down the road, with the pickup truck set to comply with round six months later.
Over the previous few a long time, Volkswagen America has been struggling to recreate the success it initially loved with the Beetle.
Within the 2010s, the corporate launched new Jetta and Passat fashions designed expressly for America with larger engines and our bodies, in addition to simplified engineering to make pricing aggressive with Asian and American manufacturers.
Whereas these vehicles boosted gross sales figures originally of their lives, they diluted the Volkswagen model and got here at a time when Individuals had been shifting en masse from conventional physique types to crossovers.
Through the use of the Scout to assault the USA’s largest and most worthwhile market segments, Volkswagen is hoping to sidestep points related to its core model and ultimately promote round 250,000 autos per 12 months.
Volkswagen gained the rights to the Scout badge when it bought heavy truck producer Navistar, based in 1986 because the successor to Worldwide Harvester.
The Scout title was utilized to a Jeep rival from the Worldwide Harvester firm between 1961 and 1980.