The brand’s CEO says its EVs won’t be ultra-digitized “isolation machines” like many modern EVs are.
With Rivian already the go-to name in electric off-roaders and Jeep moving in fast, VW’s resurrected Scout Motors brand needs to figure out a niche of its own. Scout’s CEO Scott Keogh thinks he has a solution: Invade the space Jeep is neglecting, with less digitized SUVs that immerse you in the world around you, not cocoon you from it. And that’ll mean including the flip-down windshield old-school Scouts were known for.
Keogh explained the brand’s approach in an interview with The Verge where he outlined what to expect from VW’s off-roaders. It’ll be informed by the Scout name’s roots in the International Harvester Scout, a rugged early SUV that competed with the Jeep CJ. Fittingly, Keogh says Scouts won’t be “isolation machines” like many modern EVs, which surround occupants with software to keep them safe and entertained. Instead, Keogh suggested Scout will take a more analog approach.
International Harvester Scout off-roading. Scout Motors
For starters, there’ll be that fold-down windshield, which Keogh called “iconic.” Instead of flush door handles and the biggest touchscreen possible (both safety hazards in their own right), Scouts will have real handles and real buttons in their cockpits like other future VWs.
1965 International Harvester Scout 800. unknown via FavCars.com
As for where these put Scout in the growing off-road EV market, it’s a more distinct place than you may first think. Though Rivian has the upscale all-terrain corner covered as an electric analog to Land Rover, Jeep is still moving in its direction with vehicles like the Recon and Wagoneer S. The Recon is meant to capture the Wrangler fanbase with its removable doors and retracting roof, but it doesn’t appear to feature the Wrangler’s fold-down windshield. It looks to be a more softcore experience, while the Wagoneer S is emphatically a performance on-roader.
Neither capture the same fanbases as the Wrangler or Grand Cherokee Trackhawk though, so it seems Jeep is leaving the door open for Scout to move in. Given how well the Wrangler 4xe sells, Jeep of all carmakers should know how much people want their electric off-roaders to be raw.
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