For years, Scout vehicles were only available to collectors and enthusiasts, as International Harvester reorganized as Navistar, focusing on commercial trucks and selling off its agricultural interests. But as TechCrunch reports, Volkswagen has acquired Navistar, and with it, the Scout brand, announcing plans to launch a line of EV vehicles based on it. The investment includes plans for a pickup and an SUV by 2026. The design details are a bit vague at this point, as evidenced by the silhouette-like imagery on Scout’s website. But it’s clear that as Harvester did decades ago, Volkswagen intends to make inroads into an off-road market it has little presence in, using the brand that helped create that market.
There are plans for a factory in Blythewood, South Carolina, with hopes to introduce the electric pickup later this year, and an SUV soon after. How much those vehicles resemble the original iconic Scouts remains to be seen. Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh has hinted that the vehicles will not resemble modern EVs. “The car will stand up right,” he said to The Verge, “It’s not a jelly bean.” The original windows will be kept, the overhang will be tight, and much of the old graphics and logos will be retained. Keogh hopes the vehicle will not let the technology inherent in EVs isolate the driver from the outside world with advanced software, which will mean actual door handles, and as he termed it, “chunky buttons.”
