First glimpse of the upcoming Scout electric 4x4

The work on the re-imagined Scout EV icon is progressing rather fast judging by the first photo released by the company. Although it is just a silhouette, it is enough to realize this isn’t going to be a dress-up party, this is going to be a real deal off-road electric truck.

Big wheels with knobbly tires, huge ground clearance without any diffs in sight - this is a heavy duty electric 4x4. You can tell the gap between the fender and the wheel is there to accommodate substantial wheel travel. The body is rounded just enough to retain the classic boxy look - VW is playing a careful game here, after all Scout is an American icon.

From what we can glimpse from this one photo, the design stays true to the first sketches VW released a while back when it announced it was reviving the Scout brand. Many people worried that the company was going to bring the Amarok to the US and sell it as Scout after some cosmetic work but the company from day one was adamant that the Scout was going to be an all new and purpose built high performance 4x4.

The car is planned to be released in 2026 with two bodies - full-size pickup truck and an SUV with a slightly shorter wheelbase. Will it be a “body on frame”? There aren’t any details available as yet but the Scout will need to compete with the likes of Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. When the Scout gets to the market, it will be a busy place.

How VW ended up owning the Scout name is a very complicated story - VW’s truck division Traton bought Navistar in 2020 and Navistar already owned the good old Harvester International who owned the rights to the Scout brand. The Scout literally was the cherry on top of the cake and it fell into VW’s lap.

Source