The Scout, a line of off-road-focused vehicles sold by International Harvester between the ‘60 and the ‘80s, is set to return to the US market as a fully electric brand by VW Group. It is reported that Volkswagen will use the Scout name for an electric SUV and pickup starting from 2026.
The International Harvester Scout, produced between 1961 and 1980 as a Jeep competitor, is considered one of the first SUVs. It was offered in different bodystyles including two-door pickup, hard-top, and soft-top convertible. VW Group owns the rights to the Scout brand since 2020 when VW-owned Traton bought Navistar International Corp. The latter was created in 1985 after the original owner of the Scout name, International Harvester, went defunct.
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The new brand sounds like a good opportunity for VW to enter the EV pickup race in the US, a market that is expected to grow in the coming years since plenty of rivals including Ford, Tesla, Rivian, and Chevrolet have already unveiled or announced their proposals. Besides the pickup, VW could also use the Scout brand to offer a no-frills off-roader SUV with a fully electric powertrain as a competitor to the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, and Land Rover Defender.
Reviving historic nameplates has proven to be quite popular in our times, with Ford (Bronco, Maverick), GMC (Hummer), and other automakers digging into their past for cool names embedded with nostalgia.
VW Group’s initial investment for the Scout project will reportedly be $1 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, the plan will likely be approved by the management board during the meeting on Wednesday. Scout will be a standalone brand in the US market, with a goal of selling up to 250,000 vehicles annually. If everything goes smoothly, production is expected to begin in 2026.
Note: The photos accompanying this story are from a 1979 International Scout II Rallye Yellow listed for sale on eBay back in 2020
