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On to new shores
International Harvester Scout
© press-inform – the press office
Volkswagen has been struggling in the USA for decades. Often not only the right models were missing, but also the right understanding of the extremely difficult mass market. Now that the transition to electric models is slowly taking place, the Wolfsburg-based company wants to introduce SUVs and pick-ups under a new electric brand from 2026. The name: Scout.
Anyone who now thinks that the Scout brand did exist in the USA at some point is mistaken. Because Scout was not a separate brand with its off-road vehicles of the 1960s and 1970s, but a model name like Golf, Passat or Atlas. The brand, under which the distinctive off-road vehicles had been on the road since the early 1960s, bore the name International Harvester and their bestseller among passenger cars was the Scout, or rather, from the early 1970s, the Scout II. International Harvester – officially only in the USA on the market – was a thoroughly successful brand for two decades. But the model name of the Scout was much better known than the brand name, because International Harvester was usually active in the field of harvesting and agricultural machinery. The Scout – available only as a two-door SUV – was available with a choice of rear-wheel or all-wheel drive and was powered by engines with four, six and eight cylinders.
The International Harvester competed in the US market until the early 1980s against models such as the Jeep CJ or a Chevrolet Blazer, both of which were true two-door SUVs. The four-door Scout only made a name for itself in Europe. The small Swiss manufacturer Monteverdi turned a converted Scout into its Safari as a real luxury model, which itself competed against the Range Rover – whose four-door model was initially also manufactured by Monteverdi. Now Scout is to become its own brand for the first time, because the VW Group Board of Management does not trust either the core Volkswagen brand or the luxury offshoots Audi and Porsche to position pick-ups as mass models on the US market. It’s about volume and image, because even the automotive surprise bag of the VW ID can do everything. Don’t judge Buzz. In any case, it will not celebrate its market launch in the USA until the second half of 2023 as a variant with a long wheelbase.
Pick-ups, and in particular the full-size pick-ups that are so successful in the USA, are the best-selling vehicle category in the USA. For more than 40 years, the F-series from Ford and above all the volume model F-150 has been the absolute bestseller. At best, he sells more than a million vehicles a year. The more than 5.50 meter long F-150 and its even larger brothers are powered by powerful six and eight cylinders. In June, the F-150 will be launched as an electric Lightning version for the first time. The direct competitors Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram and Toyota Tundra will not come with the all-important electric versions until 2024. For many years, Volkswagen had thought about how to jump on the pick-up bandwagon. The Amarok, coming from Argentina, was not homologated for the US market, and the mid-size pick-ups planned several times on the modular transverse matrix were not big and strong enough to keep up with the full-size models.
This is exactly what Volkswagen wants to compete against from 2026 with its electric Scout pick-up and large off-road vehicle. “Now that Volkswagen has managed the turnaround in the USA, we are now taking the opportunity to further expand our position in one of the most important growth markets for electric vehicles,” says Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, “electrification offers a historic opportunity as a group in to enter the highly attractive pick-up and R-SUV segment and thus underline our ambitions to become a major player in the US market.” The models under the all-electric Scout brand will be significantly larger than the two current top models from VW Atlas, which is based on the maximally stretched modular transverse matrix. In the long term, Volkswagen is aiming for a market share of at least ten percent in the USA.
Arno Antlitz, CFO of Volkswagen: “The company that we will found this year will be a separate, independently managed entity and brand within the Volkswagen Group. This corresponds to the Group’s new management model: small units that are agile and have access to our platforms in order to leverage synergies.” Incidentally, the name Scout is not entirely new in the Volkswagen Group: under the Czech brand Skoda are the rustic station wagon versions of Octavia, Superb and Fabia have been given the suffix Scout for years. Electric models like the Enyaq will certainly soon follow.