Scout's new South Carolina factory has started producing vehicles, the company announced Thursday, InsideEVs reported. They are not production trucks, and they are not for sale. The plant is building validation vehicles that will go through real-world testing and be used to refine both the final design and the production process itself.
Scout has about a year to learn those lessons before it is supposed to start building trucks customers can buy. It has said production of sellable vehicles will begin later next year, with first deliveries set for the 2028 model year. In a period when several electric trucks have been delayed or canceled, InsideEVs read the announcement as a public signal that Scout still intends to make it to market.
Range extenders first
The company's Harvester extended-range electric vehicles have proven far more popular among reservation holders than Scout expected, InsideEVs said, with the vast majority skipping the purely electric option. That is why the range-extended Traveler SUV will launch first, followed by the Terra pickup and then the pure-electric models. Like many automakers, Scout appears to have overestimated demand for a battery-only truck when the project was first announced.
The all-electric truck segment has been hit hard. InsideEVs noted that the two most popular battery-electric trucks, the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Tesla Cybertruck, had both been canceled as of last week, that buyers have resisted paying a large premium for purely electric trucks, and that Ram has killed its all-electric truck program in favor of an upcoming range-extended model. The next Lightning is also expected to get a range extender. That market is still unproven. Ram's range-extended truck has been delayed more than once, and Scout and Ford are still a ways off. The brands are planning more than 500 miles of combined range on a full battery and a full tank, but detailed pricing has not been released, so the size of the market is still an open question.
Advantages, and a long year ahead
Scout has Volkswagen behind it and will benefit from VW's software and cost-sharing tie-up with Rivian, InsideEVs said. It is also using a familiar name in a defined niche: off-road, solid-axle trucks and SUVs, with a bench seat in the mix. Launching a new brand is still hard. The company has to navigate a flurry of dealer lawsuits and a tough auto market, and it has another year of holding public interest before the first customer trucks are due. Thursday's news, in InsideEVs' closing line, got Scout a bit closer to the finish line. It is not a showroom date.