Scout Motors has stopped sketching and started stamping. The company has begun assembling validation versions of its Traveler SUV and Terra pickup at its Blythewood, South Carolina, factory, with stamping, welding, and paint operations now underway. Scout CEO Scott Keogh puts the plant at roughly 85 percent complete, an ambitious timeline considering ground was broken at the site just under three years ago. Essentially, validation builds are the awkward teenage years of a car. They exist to expose snags in tooling and processes before pre-production units arrive, and Scout says full production starts in 2027. Deliveries are still slated for 2028.Â
Scout Motors
Most Scout Buyers Want The Gas-Powered Range Extender
The extended-range Harvester models, with a gas engine working as a generator for up to 500 miles of range, will launch ahead of the fully electric ones. For a brand that once pitched itself as a pure EV company, that’s quite the pivot. But the reservation numbers suggest Scout’s decision to prioritize range-extended models is paying off.
Scout Traveler
Scout Motors
According to CNBC, Scout counts about 212,000 reservations, up from 50,000 in January and 160,000 in March, with roughly 87 percent for the extended-range versions. About 75 percent of reservations are for the Traveler SUV, suggesting Scout’s return to the market may initially be driven more by SUV buyers than pickup shoppers. Keogh thinks the total tally could pass 400,000 before production begins.Â
Reservations Are Only Half The StoryÂ
With a plant designed for 200,000 vehicles a year, the list already exceeds a year of output on paper, though the ramp-up to full capacity will likely be slower. Also consider that a reservation costs $100 and is fully refundable. Keogh himself says the big question is how much early production Scout can actually presell. The expected starting price under $60,000 will do a lot of the persuading. Scout has made considerable progress toward putting its first vehicles on the road, and 212,000 reservations suggest there’s no shortage of initial interest. But with refundable deposits and production still more than a year away, the real test will come when buyers have to turn those reservations into purchase orders.
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