Volkswagen launches pickup with popular feature that's been ripped from trucks for a decade
Volkswagen builds a slate of fun-loving, trendy vehicles — like the Taos SUV, Golf hatch, or ID. Buzz electric van.
But in America, where the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado pickups have maintained sales dominance for decades, VW doesn't make a single truck for the consumer market.
Scout is supposed to change that.
Volkswagen bought the rights to revive the iconic Scout brand in 2021, and the first models — the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup — are expected to hit driveways in late 2027.
Originally built by International Harvester, the mid-century Scout was a boxy, go-anywhere truck that looked like early Ford Broncos and Chevy Blazers.
It faded out in the 1980s, but VW is bringing it back, with a unique twist to the engine, in hopes of finally getting a foothold in America's truck-obsessed market.
And this month, VW showed off the final prototype, and one throwback detail instantly stood out.
The front row has a three-seat bench. It looks like the kind of bench that used to be standard in classic American trucks, with room for a driver and two adults.
Pickup trucks, which used to have bench seats with largely flat floors, have turned to more captain's chairs and easily-accessible cupholders
Scout has two seating arrangements in its pickup: two captain's chairs or a three-seater bench (pictured above)
Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' pick for second in command during the 2024 election, owns a Scout. He gave car tips from his YouTube while fixing the truck during the campaign
Over the past decade, giant consoles, knobby gear selectors, and captain's chairs pushed the classic seating option out of trucks.
Pickups that maintained the bench often forced mid-seat riders to straddle floor-mounted cupholders.
Scout thinks it cracked the space problem.
By using the truck's battery setup to keep the floor perfectly flat, VW managed to fit an optional bench in the front and a flat floor in the second row, seating six in total.
And that retro touch seems to be hitting a nerve.
Scout CEO Scott Keogh says he's received more than 130,000 non-binding reservations so far — each costing $100.
And nearly eight out of 10 of those potential buyers aren't asking for full EVs.
They want extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs: trucks that drive on electricity but use a gas engine as an onboard generator to recharge the battery on long trips.
Scout is planning two versions of the truck: a dedicated EV and a battery-powered truck with a gas generator on board
The Scout brand was popular in the 1960s as an alternative to Jeep, Chevy, and Ford
'The market clearly has spoken, without a doubt, and they like the EREV technology, full stop,' Keogh told Bloomberg, noting the system gives the truck enough juice for 500 miles and increases towing capacity. 'This is EV without the drama.'
That preference is part of a global trend.
Chinese automakers are already selling EREVs at a massive scale, European sales are climbing, and US buyers have cooled on pure EVs since losing access to the $7,500 federal tax credit.
And that political shift is reshaping Scout itself.
The brand that VW originally pitched as a pure electric revival is now being repositioned as a mostly hybrid lineup.
Keogh told Bloomberg the company isn't dropping the roughly $60,000 starting price to compensate for the missing tax credit and doesn't think it needs to.
The pivot also reflects the broader EV slowdown. Ford is reportedly weighing whether to kill the F-150 Lightning, Tesla's Cybertruck has struggled to convert hype into mass sales, and Dodge nixed its electric truck plans altogether.
Scout's CEO is confident in his company's approach to combine a gas generator with a battery engine: 'They like the EREV technology, full stop'
Scout is planning on rolling out its first two vehicles from its South Carolina plant in 2027
Independent automotive analysts said automakers made a mistake when rolling out pickup trucks as their first all-electric vehicles, because batteries still struggle with common truck activities like rugged terrain, towing, and inclement weather.
Keogh also said he's open to killing the Terra if sales don't pick up.
Even so, VW is betting big.
A new $2 billion factory in South Carolina will build the SUV and pickup, with room to potentially assemble Audi models on the same platform.
Scout is targeting the heart of the US profit pool — truck and SUV segments that make up roughly 40 percent of industry earnings — and leaning heavily into the idea of an American-made truck built for American buyers.
