Future VW And Audi SUVs Could Be Based On An American Brand’s Trucks
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Volkswagen’s new Scout brand is expending a massive amount of resources to build an all-new platform for its upcoming off-roaders. We’ve already heard rumors that Audi was looking to poach some of that effort for a new model of its own. Now a new report says VW will be looking to do the same.
Scout Motors
Scout Motors is an American automaker that was established in 2022 to produce electric off-road vehicles. It is currently owned by Volkswagen Group, which acquired the rights to the brand from International Harvester. The brand is an entirely new company but will build on the legacy of the original Scout off-roaders, launching two models: an SUV and a pickup truck on a new electric box-frame chassis platform, which will be produced in Blythewood, South Carolina.
Founded
May 2022
Founder
Volkswagen Group
Headquarters
Detroit, Michigan
Owned By
Volkswagen Group
Current CEO
Scott Keough
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a mainstream automaker founded by the German Labour Front in 1937 as the « people’s car » company. Famous for the Volkswagen Beetle, Type 2 Bus, and modern classics like the Golf and Jetta, Volkswagen has emerged as one of the world’s largest automakers and a subsection of the larger Volkswagen Group, which either directly or indirectly owns controlling stakes in Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Rimac, Seat, and more.
Founded
28 May 1937
Founder
German Labour Front
Headquarters
Wolfsburg, Germany
Owned By
Volkswagen Group
Current CEO
Thomas Schaefer
The ladder-frame chassis that sits under the Scout Traveler and Scout Terra models is key to its off-road ability. Now Volkswagen could be looking at making its own off-roader on the same frame, though it’s not clear where or when that might happen.
Scout Startup Gives VW Something It Doesn’t Have
Scout technical boss Burkhard Huhnke spoke with Autocar about the re-started brand’s plans and progress. He said that starting fresh like this gave « a chance for the Volkswagen Group to observe how a start-up would take on these challenges. » Despite being owned by the Group, Scout is largely functioning as a brand-new automaker, with VW hoping that opportunities to be flexible will outweigh the challenges presented.
« There is no body-on-frame platform in the entire group, so someone has to start, » he said. « There is no body like that, EV like that, chassis like that, so we have to start from scratch. »
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Huhnke has embraced the opportunity presented with Scout: « Efficiency is key. I’ve taken the challenge to become a benchmark R&D organization in the world, from a size and cost perspective. That is an interesting challenge appreciated by our sponsors as well. »
Audi G-Competitor, VW Defender Challenger Are Possibilities
While Huhnke didn’t address the possibilities of another VW on the platform, Autocar did. The site said that it has sources who suggest that there is a desire to use the chassis for more off-roaders.
That includes the possibility of a failed model making it to market after all. The ID. Ruggdzz was a Tiguan-sized 4×4 that was viewed as a competitor to the Land Rover Defender. It was meant to hit production in 2023, but VW’s halting electric launches saw it canned. That model, the report says, is one VW is « keen » to revisit with the Scout platform.
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Reports from 2023 hinted that Audi could also be looking at the bones. An Audi 4×4 that functioned as an alternative to the Mercedes-Benz G-Class was rumored then, helping to share the development costs.
While Scout is getting its own new factory, the automaker is smart enough to make it flexible too. Scott Keogh, head of Scout, said recently that the factory will be able to produce vehicles for other VW Group brands.
Source: Autocar
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