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Scout CEO: 160K Reservations, No Unsolvable Problems

Scott Keogh said he still expects prototype production to begin in 2027 and says issue of dealer sales vs. direct-to-consumer sales should be decided by consumers themselves.

The Scout Terra truck (Scout Motors)

Despite reportsCEO of Scout Motors, the made-in-America electric SUV and truck startup, said the plan is still to have prototype cars come “down the line” in 2027 with customer vehicles following “thereafter.”

Scott Keogh said life as a startup company producing electric vehicles from a clean sheet is a life of on-the-fly adjustments. “There are technical challenges every minute of every day,” he said at an Automotive Press Association briefing at the company’s Novi, Michigan tech and engineering site. “But there are no defining ‘oh my god ’technical challenges that can’t be solved.”

Since it was founded in 2022 with heavy backing from Volkswagen AG, Scout has grown to have 400 employees in Novi and about 1,000 employees elsewhere, including at the in-progress production center in Blythewood, SC that will produce the Terra truck and Traveler SUV.

That $2-billion factory is enormous and will start with the capacity to build 200,000 vehicles annually, Keogh said, with the ability to double that if necessary. Whether it will be necessary is a key question for a company that claims 160,000 reservations, 87% of which are for the extended range electric vehicle (EREV). The company is seeing about a 70-to-30 split, with most customers interested in the SUV.

At the company’s Novi, Michigan tech center, Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh speaks to a meeting of the Automotive Press Association. He underscored the nationalism play of Scout a reborn American brand, referencing “America” 37 times in an hourlong briefing moderated by CNBC.com’s Michael Wayland. (Chris Clonts)

It’s an awfully lot of capacity for an electric vehicle startup. Keogh did say that while there are no current plans, Blythewood could concurrently build vehicles for another Volkswagen Auto Group brand. The factory starts off with local-supply advantages that all OEMs want but are sometimes out of their control. For instance, the company will be building the batteries for the vehicles on-site. Keogh repeated multiple times that he believes the vehicles have 50-state appeal, as opposed to the traditional EV market which is heavily grouped in coastal urban areas.

The projected 350 miles (563 km) of range (for the BEV) and potentially 500 (805) with the range-extending internal-combustion generator. He cited performance of 4.5-seconds to 60 mph (97 km/h) and overall off-road capability (with at least 12 inches (30 cm) of clearance and short overhangs) as other selling points.

AI for operations – and training

Like other CEOs, Keogh praised AI for its ability to bring efficiency not only to operations but also the ability to generate insights that let the company follow its mantra of building vehicles for the customer first, as opposed to building to available supply, or traditional packaging, etc.

The Scout Traveler SUV (Scout Motors)

One area AI will help the company as a startup factory is training. “You can see how training in a plant is historically done. You bring some people in, sit them in a conference room, have a big binder, and sit there for four or five days,” he said. “What really matters is how quickly can you turn someone into a productive employee, getting them into the plant? How much money does it cost you to do that? And when they're in there, are they acceptable? That's all that matters. And I can promise you, binders and conference rooms don't get you there. There are more things you can do. With real insights, we get more productive, faster.”

Design choices: Customer driven

Keogh said the company can see in research that customers will embrace EVs like theirs.

He said that giant screens may have been a mistake in current electric truck offerings. “People end up saying ‘dude, where’s my truck?“ ’That’s why Scout interiors will feature traditional-feeling knobs and switches for the most frequently used and important controls. He said customers can be assured there would be no recessed automatic door handles, using the moment to call out the ban China has issued on the really-pretty-but-sometimes-pretty-annoying EV feature popularized by Tesla.

And speaking of that generator placement, he said that helps with manufacturing and package integrity, since adding (or deleting) the generator means no significant parts of the system must be moved. In other words, it’s a module that can be added when necessary, that doesn’t affecting anything when it’s not there. As far as questions about vehicle dynamics, Keogh said driving dynamics can easily be tuned so that EREV Scouts are just as stable as the BEVs will be.

Potential benefit is also a headwind

Last month, VW dealers began litigation against Scout and VW, challenging Scout’s intent to sell vehicles directly to consumers, the model followed by Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid. Those current VW dealers say that model would violate contracts they have with the company while also violating franchise laws in practically all 50 states. “There is no debate that the system we have now is inefficient,” Keogh said. “A lot of companies want to control their retail experience. We believe we should let the American consumer decide.”

Topics:
Automotive Consumer Product Manufacturing Electrification Manufacturing & Prototyping

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