Thursday is a big day: One in which we’ll see a new brand emerge for the U.S. market.
If you took a poll of car buyers in today’s market, it’s doubtful most of them will know the name “Scout”. For those who do remember that name, though, this is a massive moment, as a brand-new SUV and truck will emerge from the aptly named Scout Motors — marking the first time you can see you’ve seen a new Scout for a whopping 44 years. That’s longer than I’ve been around, as well as most of my contemporaries in car journalism as well.
Even though the Scout’s been out of production longer than it was ever rolling off the old assembly line in Fort Wayne, Indiana (the now-defunct International Harvester built the Scout SUV and its derivatives between 1961 and 1980), it still carries a reputation for innovation, ruggedness and good-old American grit in the decades since, and that’s only bolstered by enthusiast organizations and events like Harvester Homecoming.
Today, October 24, at 4 PM Central Time, we’ll all see what Scout Motors has been up to over these past couple years, and what the modern interpretation of a long-forgotten (at least among the general public) SUV will be.
DO: Expect a body-on-frame, electric SUV and truck.
In the lead up to today’s reveal, Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh penned a blog post setting the tone for what this new model — or, more specifically, these new models, as there will be an SUV and pickup at today’s debut — will represent.
So, let’s start with what we know: Today’s Scout will be an electric SUV and truck built on a clean-sheet platform from a company that, while technically under Volkswagen Group, maintains a level of autonomous operation to build an American SUV for American customers.
“Know this,” Keogh stresses in his post, “we are not going to deliver a badge-engineered, jellybean-shaped soft-roader. There are already plenty of those available for people who don’t want or need the serious capability that only a vehicle purposefully designed from the ground up as an off-roader can deliver.” To that end, one nugget of information he dropped in foreshadowing tonight’s reveal is that we will see a body-on-frame vehicle, and it won’t have the curvaceous and painfully anonymous styling that swoopy EVs like a certain VW-branded crossover bring to the table.
While he’s clearly not going to let the cat out of the bag with technical specs just yet, we will have that information in a few hours. But, in the meantime, you can hang your expectations on another point Keogh brings up: “We want to hang onto the intuitive, mechanical spirit that made these archetypical (sic) SUVs a companion as much as a conveyance. We are keeping things pragmatic, taking advantage of the technology only where it has a great application. That’s why 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.”
Still skeptical? You absolutely have every right to be, especially if you’re a die-hard Scout fan. Time and time again, we’ve heard and seen news of modern “reimagining” for certain beloved models, only to be…well, let’s say disappointed.
DON’T: Expect it to see the new Scout on the streets immediately.
Several months ago, I had the opportunity to rally a group of classic Scouts from their historical stomping ground in Fort Wayne, Indiana, all the way to where the new Scout SUV and truck will be manufactured in Blythewood, South Carolina, just outside Columbia. When we arrived at our destination, our group became part of the formal groundbreaking ceremony, with Keogh as keynote speaker alongside a cadre of local and state officials.
Scout Motors isn’t playing around with this reveal, as it (and VW Group, by extension) are sinking a massive $2 billion into this 1,100-acre facility to build the new Scout SUV and truck. That said, construction takes time, and while Keogh mentions the plant will “soon” create 4,000 jobs and crank out 200,000 Scouts each and every year…we’re not there yet.
Tonight’s reveal will give us a look at what’s to come, but you’ll still have to be patient if you end up liking what you see. Scout Motors has not yet disclosed a time frame on when the first serial units will go into production — again, we should have more information on that tonight — but a brand-new model from a brand-new company suggests we’ll be in for a bit of a wait on that front. If Scout Motors follows the typical pattern with all-new vehicle debuts, it will open up reservations for Scouts soon, though. So, if you do want one, the earlier you throw your hat in the ring, the sooner you’ll be able to roll through town and out onto the trails in your very own Scout.
While you’re waiting to see the new Scout officially debut (yes, we will absolutely be covering it on the ground, so stay tuned for our video), we’ve done a couple updates along the way to tonight’s event, which you can check out below:
