Scout's Terra and Traveler aren't what I wanted, but may be what the market needs

As ever, what the journalists covet doesn't necessarily correlate with what consumers will buy.

Credit: Scout

Good morning. I'm writing to you, today, from the best place on Earth: Home. I'm happy to say I'm spending a few weeks blissfully milling about the place, but I spent much of the prior week somewhere similarly blissful: Maui. I was there getting briefed on the future of in-car semiconductors, and I'll have the download for you on that soon enough.

My being way out in the middle of the Pacific meant I sadly couldn't attend this previous week's Scout unveiling, something that I've been eagerly awaiting. In the lead-up to this event, I was lucky enough to interview various folks at the reborn icon last year, including CEO Scott Keogh for TechCrunch and lead designer Chris Benjamin for InsideEVs.

Maybe it was my own proclivities skewing the images I was sketching in my mind during those conversations, but I was really hoping we'd see some small-sized, bare-bones, no-frills, value-priced, off-roaders. That's a lot of hyphens, but you get the idea: Something like a Wrangler or Bronco starting at genuinely attainable prices but that could then be optioned to the max and special editioned up into the kinds of premium price points that Scout would surely need to launch a whole new everything.

Instead, we got the Terra and the Traveler, a pair of up-sized, decidedly family-friendly machines that are said to start at about $60,000. That undercuts the Rivian R1T by about $10k, making the Scouts something of a value, but it's impossible to know where Rivian's pricing model is going to be in 2027.

In fact, given the current state of things, it's impossible to know whether we'll even have a Rivian brand in 2027, though I dearly hope we do, and the company's recent $5 billion cash infusion will surely help.

By the way, the source of that infusion? Scout's parent company, Volkswagen. Awkward...

So they're bigger than I'd hoped and more expensive than I'd hoped, but the biggest disappointment for me is that they don't really seem to be capitalizing on the EV platform. Sure, bench seating is cool, and I genuinely like the design, but there's just nothing particularly novel here, nothing like the Rivian pass-through storage tunnel or the F-150’s power-sharing system that made me think, "Wow, that's smart."

In other words, Scout's offerings really don't meet any of the criteria I outlined in my editorial for MotorTrend earlier this year outlining what EVs need to be to survive the coming EV market purge. Just the same, I'll contradict myself by saying that Scout's initial product offerings might just be what the market needs.

As mentioned above, launching a brand is expensive, and so starting with higher-dollar, higher-margin offerings might be the only way to make this viable.

So, too, might be the mass-market appeal. Sure, I see a dozen Wranglers and Broncos every day, but those are rookie numbers compared to the sheer volume of bigger trucks and SUVs I see droning to work. Mind you, they're all nearly empty, dutifully hauling single passengers this way and that, a massive waste of fuel and cargo space, but that's a gripe for another day.

The fact is, if there really was a big market for a boxy, little, two-door electric off-roader, Ford probably would have built one by now.

Credit: Scout

Then there's the timing: Scout won't deliver anything until 2027, a year later than Keogh told me last year. Many of my esteemed colleagues have been saying that's too late, and as an impatient sort myself, my first inclination was to agree. But the more I think about it, the more I think that might be the right time. After all, the EV market in the US is growing steadily, but where some brands are seeing big successes, others are struggling. With any luck, in another two years, things will be stabilized somewhat.

And yes, 2027 really is just two years away at this point. I know, right?

The final thing is how Scout is going to sell these. It would have been easy enough for the brand to beg, borrow, and steal a little floor space from Volkswagen dealers, instantly gaining a strong, local presence nationwide.

Scout is instead taking the harder road of doing direct sales. At this point, I firmly believe that this is what an EV brand needs to do to find true success. I've seen so many cases of traditional dealerships being willfully ignorant of their own EV offerings and, in some cases, outright hostile towards them.

While there are exceptions, dealers on the whole have shown they don't want to sell EVs, likely because they fear the lack of money to be made on maintenance. Scout going its own way is the right way to go. It also, conveniently, squares nicely with the brand marketing.

So, I'm cautiously optimistic for Scout -- even if I am somewhat disappointed. I really did want a cheap, little, boxy off-roader with two doors, four wheels, and little else. With any luck, the company's third offering will be precisely that.

A Trip to Velocity

It was Maui last week, but a few weeks before I was over in Sonoma visiting the Velocity Invitational. Think of this as a uniquely American spin on the Goodwood Revival, and as such, I was glad to write about some key pieces of Americana that dominated the track for Hagerty. And, if you prefer more exotic fare, I wrote about that stuff, too.

Is a Subaru WRX tS better than an STI?

You probably know I'm rather fond of my Subarus, so I was very excited to get a chance to wheel the new WRX tS. No, it's no STI, but in some ways it's better. Sort of. It's complicated. You should just really read my full thoughts.

They’re here at Motor1

How Hot Wheels are made

Finally, a tardy inclusion of a feature I had such a good time pulling together. Earlier this month, I visited Los Angeles to get a tour of Mattel's design center and see how Hot Wheels are designed. It was, quite simply, a dream to go there, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Read it here at Motor1

That's enough for now. I hope you all have amazing weeks ahead.

Update: This post initially had the incorrect name for the Scout Traveler. Those responsible have been sacked.