Everything You Need To Know About Scout Motors

Scout Motors has had two lives, one beginning over 50 years ago and a recent reincarnation. That's more chances than most car companies get, and is testament to its influence in the sport utility vehicle market. But the words "sport utility" weren't exactly commonplace among the public in the early 1960s. That's when International Harvester sought to create a compact pickup truck intended to compete with Jeep in a market that was just beginning to emerge.

Harvester was new at it too, and more known for producing farm equipment, commercial trucks, and construction vehicles. Nevertheless, the Scout was released to the public in 1961, shaking up the automobile landscape and becoming a precursor to modern SUVs. Marketed as having better flexibility and performance, the Scout came with a fold-down windshield and removable hard tops, giving drivers the option of a light pickup with a five-foot bed and up to an 800-pound payload, or a full-length roof and a covered cargo area. The brand produced hundreds of thousands of Scouts in various models for the next 20 years, and ultimately proved to be a challenge to Jeep, the Toyota Land Cruiser, and the Ford Bronco, among others. But by 1980, they faced production cost issues, as well as a looming labor strike, and Harvester shut down production of the Scout.

[Featured image by Jeremy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled |CC BY-SA 2.0]

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."