I Learned New Things About The Upcoming Scout 4×4 And Now I’m Insanely Excited

I just got back from a dinner during which I was able to chat with some folks from the Scout team. Yes, Scout, the Volkswagen spinoff — a 4×4 brand that promises America-made four-wheel drive electric machines meant to compete with the Rivian R1S, Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, Toyota Land Cruiser, and more. The little I learned from the Scout representative tonight has me insanely excited, and you should be, too. Here’s what I know.

Man, Scout is not playing around with this press trip here in Nashville. The brand invited everybody under the sun, and for good reason: You only get to launch a brand once. The pressure is high.

OK, technically the brand was launched a few years ago, but if we’re being honest, the true brand launch happens when a company shows its first product, and that’s happening on Thursday right here in Nashville. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after having dinner with a Scout rep, I’m now amped.

We really don’t know a ton about what’s coming from Scout, a subsidiary of VW that — unlike Audi or, say, Skoda — operates independently from its VW investor. What we do know is that Volkswagen has a huge product problem, spending too much of the past couple of decades seemingly misunderstanding the tastes of American buyers. Scout, whose engineering operations are predominantly in Michigan, with business and manufacturing facilities in Virginia and South Carolina, hopes to change all that by leveraging American product planning and marketing acumen with German manufacturing skill. It’s a dynamic duo, and one that hopefully will sell lots of cars.

Recently, we’ve seen the teaser above showing a compass on the overhead console, and previously we’ve heard that Scout will reveal both an SUV and truck, with the brand showing off some rough sketches:

But tonight, I got a bit more detail — not a lot — but enough to have me excited for tonight when the thing is revealed (come back at 5:00 PM ET for more). First, I asked the Scout rep if the brand is “married” to BEVs, and he responded with something along these lines (I jotted it down as close as I could): “Scout is married to BEV in that a battery will drive an EV drivetrain.”

Wait. Hold on.

Be still my beating heart, because I don’t want to get my hopes up too much. But he didn’t say “Yes,” he said a battery will drive an EV drivetrain. Why did he put it like that?

Is this… is this going to have the Holy Grail of powertrain options? Will this be the coveted Extended Range EV? Please car gods, grant us an EREV! Give us a normal EV powertrain/drivetrain to get us a few hundred miles EV-only, and then a gasoline “range extender” to act as a generator when the battery runs out. Please solve our range anxiety problems not with the same solution as every other EV automaker — big-ass heavy, expensive batteries — but instead with a small gas generator.

Right now, only the Ram Ramcharger is offering this Holy Grail of vehicle powertrains in America; I believe in my heart that someone at Scout sees what I and so many Americans see — EREV is the answer. It’s irrefutably the right powertrain for America right now.

Don’t let me down, Scout!

But there’s more. The Scout rep promised “tactile controls” and switches. Yes, physical buttons and not just touchscreen controls! Eureka! What’s more, the car will have “door handles that don’t [require] a Ph.D.” Plus, there will be a swing-out tire carrier, an open-roof, and locking differentials! Yeehaw!

I’d like to take this moment to draw your attention to an article I wrote six years ago titled “The Proper Spot For A Spare Tire Is On The Rear Door.” Here’s what I wrote in it:

Packaging the tire on the back door is simply the best solution. It doesn’t eat into cargo space, it doesn’t compromise ground clearance or departure angle, it doesn’t limit how big the spare can be (though it may require some reinforcement of the door if you put 40s on it), it doesn’t get too filthy during off-roading, it’s easily accessible and, most importantly, it’s downright sexy.

Seriously, show me one SUV that doesn’t look better with a spare tire on the back? Hell, even the tiny Ford EcoSport looks better with a big cylinder hanging off its tail:

Plus, you can customize these tire carriers with political opinions or funny off-road-y text, so that’s always fun.

I pointed out some downsides to a rear-mounted spare — with a big one being that it doesn’t allow for a tailgate:

To be sure, there are a few downsides. For one, the tire reduces rearward visibility, and it also limits what style of rear door automakers can employ—a tailgate and full lift-gate are both out of the question if the tire’s mounted directly to the door. So you’re pretty much limited to some sort of swing-gate unless there’s a separate swing-out carrier (in which a tailgate or a full liftgate are possible). In any case, getting that rear door open is made harder because that large mass is in the way.

Notice how I point out that there is one way to get both the coveted tailgate and a rear-mounted tire carrier — offering a spare tire carrier that is separate from the door. Like on this Jeep CJ-7:

Look at that: a rear-mounted spare and a tailgate. It’s the holy grail of spare tire designs, and it looks like we’ll be seeing it on at least one of the new Scouts. More to come on Thursday, including information on how Scout plans to actually distribute/sell the things, info on preorders, and more.

Someone asked Scout’s rep about how many different variants/trims there will be, and the rep basically said the company will encourage owners to modify/accessories their vehicles to make them their own, though at the same time the company wants to reduce manufacturing complexity. So there will be some trims, but I don’t expect customers will able to order piece-by-piece like the old days.

Anyway, tonight I’ll see the two body styles on a single platform — a truck and an SUV that are expected to be “85% reality, 15 percent fantasy.” Expected delivery is somewhere around 2026 to 2027, which feels a long way out. I have concerns about the market for such machines given that Rivian hasn’t exactly been raking in cash, though let’s see tomorrow. If this is a badass, open-top, tailgate-having hardcore off-roader with an EREV drivetrain — and with excellent VW engineering to push it through production — it will in many ways have the competition beat.

CEO Scott Keogh recently published a blog — titled “Why Scout: Scott Keogh’s Vision For The Future Looks To The Past” — describing a few attributes of the upcoming machines, writing:

Know this: 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 — that only a Scout can deliver.

We want to embrace some of the simplicity that Scout has always represented. We want to hang onto the intuitive, mechanical spirit that made these archetypical 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.

But make no mistake: the technology will be there, efficiently and effectively deploying the monstrous torque from the electric motors in service of your next adventure, among other applications that we are eager to reveal during our October 24 event.

So a simple electric off-roader. That doesn’t exist yet; Rivian has the R1S, but I’d hardly call that simple. Still, to make a high-range squared-off 4×4 EV requires huge batteries, and that requires huge sums of money… unless Scout goes with an EREV.

There have been absolutely zero rumors about an EREV Scout, so it seems unlikely, but I still hope it happens. I will say my prayers to the car gods ahead of the debut that’s happening later today.