- VW’s new Scout-branded trucks and SUVs are scheduled for 2026, and we now know they’ll be built in the Palmetto State.
- The $2 billion plant will create an estimated 4,000 jobs and will be able to produce 200,000 EVs a year.
- Currently, VW builds the ID.4 in Chattanooga and plans to expand EV production there, but the South Carolina plan will be Scout-specific.
Volkswagen will build electric vehicles for its upcoming Scout Motors brand in South Carolina, the company announced this week. The EV plant will be VW’s second vehicle production facility in the US, but it will make nothing but the Scout model.
VW’s board of management has announced that the company will build a new assembly plant for Scout vehicles in Blythewood, South Carolina at a cost of $2 billion. The plant is expected to begin production of an electric pickup truck and “rugged” SUV with the Scout name in 2026. The new Scout EV plant will create an estimated 4,000 jobs and will be able to manufacture over 200,000 vehicles a year when fully operational. A VW spokesperson pointed out that these will all be Scout vehicles, not EVs for other VW brands Automotive News.
VW currently operates a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. The company announced last May that it would spend more than $7 billion in North America over five years to “boost its product portfolio, regional R&D, and manufacturing capabilities” in the region. Volkswagen began manufacturing the ID.4 in Chattanooga in July 2022, with plans to produce 7000 EVs a month. This number should increase throughout 2023. The automaker also opened a battery engineering lab in Chattanooga last year and has said it wants to “build” battery cell production in the US.
The new Scout plant fits in with other commitments made as part of the $7.1 billion announcement from last May. At the time, VW said it would launch not only the American-assembled ID.4 in 2022, but the ID. Buzz in 2024 and “New Electric SUVs from 2026.” VW also builds EVs in Europe and China and has talked about a new Canadian battery plant.
VW took control of the Scout brand in 2021 when it acquired Navistar (the successor to International Harvester, which made the original Scout). VW officially revives the brand in 2022. Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh, former CEO and president of Volkswagen Group of America, wrote about the plant on LinkedIn and said that “what started in 1960 comes full circle today. Scout reimagines adventure once again.” that an off-road vehicle can deliver – only this time, it’s with a full-electric platform. Today, we’re closer than ever to putting an important American icon on the road.”
Nowhere in these factory announcements did we learn any details about the vehicles themselves, but Keogh’s words indicate that some all-electric outdoor fun is about to happen. “The Scout has always been the vehicle that takes your family to camp and also shows up to the job site every morning,” he wrote. “That’s not changing. The Scout’s versatility remains intact, and America’s love of driving will be revived.”
contributing editor
Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrid and hydrogen cars since 2006. New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the move away from gasoline-powered vehicles and exploring the new technology’s importance not only to the auto industry, but to the entire world. have been , Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or on good days behind the wheel of a new EV.