Forty-four years ago, International Harvester produced the last Scout off-roader at its Fort Wayne production facility. Today, Scout Motors is alive again, having unveiled the models that will propel the brand into the 21st century. The Traveler SUV and the Terra pickup truck promise the same legendary off-road capabilities in modern-retro styling and premium quality. The catch is that production won't start until 2027, one year later than previously planned.
Volkswagen Group was given a gem when it acquired Navistar in 2020, as the agriculture company owned the rights to the legendary Scout brand. In 2022, Volkswagen announced the intention to revive the Scout brand as a standalone carmaker dedicated to the North American market.
The announcement made everyone skeptical, especially as Volkswagen promised to show the prototypes of the new off-roaders in two years and start production in 2026.
What matters is that Scout Traveler and Scout Terra are projected to become the public's new favorites, making everyone forget about the Cybertruck's quirkiness and fragility. The design and the feature set announced at launch are great, and the details released by the young carmaker show that they gave it a lot of thought.
The only thing remaining is to produce them at scale with convincing build quality and, most importantly, profitably. Scout has three years to figure out these aspects. The two Scouts are built on a new proprietary body-on-frame chassis featuring a solid rear axle, front and rear mechanical lockers, and a front sway bar disconnect.
The platform is intended to accommodate up to 35-inch tires and has over one foot (30 cm) of ground clearance and nearly 3 feet (91 cm) of water-fording capability. Add the "competitive approach and departure angles" to the mix, and you get why Scout Motors advertises its vehicles as rugged, off-road beasts.
The Traveler SUV will be able to tow up to 7,000 lbs (3,175 kg), while the Terra truck will push this to over 10,000 lbs. (4,535 kg), pretty much in line with the rest of the industry. Both will carry up to 2,000 lbs (907 kg) of payload.
The Terra pickup truck features a 5.5-foot (1.68 meters) bed, which can hide a 33-inch spare tire underneath or a 35-inch spare using an optional in-bed carrier. The truck bed also features one 240-volt and two 120-volt outlets. One 120-volt and USB-C power outlets are installed in the frunk.
The Terra truck will also feature a front bench seat, although that might change in production. The same happened with Tesla's Cybertruck, which was unveiled with a similar feature that got people excited. However, during development, Tesla decided to drop this seating layout, supposedly for safety reasons. It will be interesting to see whether Scout Motors will manage to bring it into production.