Electric vehicles are inseparable from newness, whether it’s new tech, new designs, or new companies like Rivian, Lucid, and Tesla. But the Volkswagen Group’s new EV-only brand also relies heavily on the past. Unveiled Thursday, the Scout Traveler electric SUV and Scout Terra electric pickup truck are modern interpretations of the classic International Harvester Scout.
Manufactured from 1961 to 1980, the original Scout helped popularize the idea of the rugged, off-road-capable utility vehicle, setting the stage for modern SUVs. VW cherry-picked the historic Scout name for what is otherwise a new enterprise, giving the automaker the off-road vehicles that were previously missing from its U.S.
lineup and an excuse to silo development and sales from its other brands. Scout Motors will manufacture the Traveler and Terra at a new factory in South Carolina, with both models expected to arrive in 2027. Old-school inside and out With their relentlessly square exteriors, the Traveler and Terra certainly capture the look of the old International Scout.
But the similarities are more than skin deep because, like the original Scout and other trucks of its era, the Scout EVs feature body-on-frame construction, mechanical four-wheel-drive systems, and solid rear axles. With these old-school underpinnings, the Traveler and Terra have as much in common with gasoline off-roaders like the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler, and Toyota Land Cruiser as they do with other EVs. The only company that’.
