Volkswagen Group will construct its Scout Motors meeting plant in South Carolina.
The plant will produce electric-powered pickups and SUVs. It is going to be Volkswagen’s second U.S. meeting manufacturing facility together with its present operations in Chattanooga. Manufacturing is anticipated to start in 2026.
Greater than 200,000 automobiles may very well be produced yearly on the facility Scout Motors stated in a press release.
“We’re reimagining Scout’s unique ingenuity and electrifying its future,” stated Scout CEO Scott Keogh.
The model stated its vehicles and rugged SUVs will harken again to the enduring Scout automobiles produced from 1960 to 1980.
They are going to be constructed “on a newly designed all-electric platform with inside engineering centered on attributes together with floor clearance, strategy angles, sturdy axles, payload capability, all-electric vary, and new digital options,” Scout stated.
The plant will manufacture automobiles solely for that model and never for different group manufacturers equivalent to Volkswagen or Audi, a VW Group of America spokesman advised Automotive Information.
Scout and Travelall automobiles made by Worldwide Harvester had been forerunners in each operate and elegance of the favored SUVs from Detroit’s Massive Three automakers such because the Ford Bronco and Basic Motors’ Chevrolet Suburban.
Harvester stopped constructing the Scout and Travelall in 1980 after the oil value shocks of the mid-Seventies because it went by a restructuring. However the Scout’s rugged “look” lives on in automobiles equivalent to Ford’s present Bronco and electrical automobile startup Rivian’s pickup and SUV line.
VW stated in Could that it might reintroduce the Scout off-road model within the U.S. The automaker’s Traton enterprise acquired U.S. truck maker Navistar in 2020, which owns the Scout identify.
Scout was created by VW Group’s board in 2022 beneath the management of then-CEO Herbert Diess. The model is barely now increase its administration groups beneath Keogh, the previous CEO of VW of America.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster tweeted on Friday: “This morning we received the decision that Scout Motors is coming to South Carolina – bringing with them 4,000 new jobs and a $2 billion funding! This resolution will present 1000’s of South Carolinians jobs, alternatives and prosperity for generations to come back.”
The plant will probably be in Blythewood, a city of roughly 4,800 residents about 19 miles north of Columbia.
VW Group has taken nice pains to maintain Scout Motors a separate entity from its present VW Group of America company construction. If the 2 entities had been linked, it would present VW and Audi sellers a declare that Scout automobiles ought to be retailed at their dealerships. Up to now, nevertheless, Keogh and Scout Motors haven’t stated how the model’s automobiles will probably be offered within the U.S.
VW Group has moved away from vehicles within the U.S. because it provides extra electrical fashions. SUVs now account for about 80 % of the U.S. gross sales of the group’s VW and Audi manufacturers.
VW final offered a pickup within the U.S. within the early Eighties.
The VW information is the newest main auto announcement for South Carolina, which is house to BMW’s U.S. operations and its largest plant by quantity. The state additionally has over 500 automotive-related corporations and 75,000 automotive business workers.
BMW stated in October it might make investments $1.7 billion to construct electrical automobiles in South Carolina. The automaker made a brand new $1 billion funding in its Spartanburg plant to arrange for EV manufacturing and is spending $700 million on a brand new high-voltage battery meeting facility in close by Woodruff, South Carolina.
Reuters contributed to this report