When they go on sale in 2026, Volkswagen’s new Scout trucks and SUVs will be made in South Carolina. The $2 billion plant will be able to make 200,000 electric vehicles per year and employ about 4000 people. Even though Volkswagen makes the ID.4 in Chattanooga and wants to make more electric vehicles there, the South Carolina plan will only apply to Scouts. This week, Volkswagen said it would build electric cars in South Carolina for its new Scout Motors brand. This will be VW’s second plant in the US, but it will only make Scout models. VW’s management board said the $2 billion plant for making Scout cars would be built in Blythewood, South Carolina. In 2026, the plant should start making electric pickup trucks and “rugged” SUVs under the Scout brand. When it’s fully running, the new Scout EV plant will be able to make more than 200,000 cars a year and employ more than 4000 people. A VW spokeswoman said all these cars would be Scouts, not EVs for other VW brands. VW only has one factory in the United States right now. It is in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In May of last year, the company said that over the next five years, it would spend more than $7 billion in North America to “grow its product line, regional R&D, and production capabilities” across the continent. VW started building the ID.4 in Chattanooga in July 2022, making 7,000 electric vehicles (EVs) monthly. In 2023, this number is expected to go up. On the other hand, the automaker opened a battery engineering center in Chattanooga last year and said it wanted to “build up” the production of battery cells in the US. In its $7.1 billion statement from last May, VW promised more than just the new Scout plant. VW said at the time that it would start selling “new electric SUVs” in 2026. This was in addition to the ID.4, which would be made in America in 2022, and the ID—Buzz, which would be completed in 2024. VW has also said it would like to build a new battery plant in Canada. Volkswagen also makes electric cars in China and Europe. Volkswagen got the Scout name when it bought Navistar in 2021. In 2022, VW officially brought back the brand. Scott Keogh, who used to be CEO and president of the Volkswagen Group of America and is now CEO of Scout Motors, wrote on LinkedIn about the facility. “Things that began in 1960 have come full circle. Scout is rethinking how fun an off-road vehicle can be by building one with an all-electric chassis. We’re getting closer to putting a big American symbol on the road.” Few details about the cars themselves were given in these manufacturing announcements, but Keogh’s words suggest that all-electric outdoor fun is on the way. According to the author, the Scout has always been the car that takes your family camping and you to work every morning. “This is not going to change. The Scout’s versatility hasn’t changed, and Americans will love driving again.”
