Keogh expressed confidence Scout will prevail in these legal challenges and follow Tesla, Lucid, and others to market this way. He deems this retail option mission critical from an efficiency standpoint. “Now that you have customer data and AI and monitoring tools, you can be dramatically more efficient with every single car that you make and where that car goes to squeeze every bit of profit out of it. We have a $65,000 asset, a car, and what we need to do is get that asset into a driveway as quickly and efficiently as possible.” This is best done with direct sales, he contends, routed through showrooms and repair facilities located where the hand-raisers live.
Why Put the Engine Where the Beetle Did?
Keogh made much of Scout’s clean-sheet design opportunity, unbound by legacy product, platform, powertrain, or assembly plant baggage. Trouble is, the first two years after the company’s September 2022 incorporation were spent designing a battery-only platform. It wasn’t until October 2024 that a gasoline range-extender was announced, at which point optimal packaging options were few. Keogh reminded us the original target was for cars rolling down the line in 2027 and into customer hands shortly after that, and he claimed early prototypes will begin being produced this year. But as we and others have reported, that timing has slipped a bit, and it’s the EREV engine that’s to blame.
We asked Keogh to take us through Scout’s rationale for the rear-mounted engine, and he pointed to ease of manufacturing—it installs as a module, with vastly simplified exhaust routing. It also leaves the original frunk, SUV interior and truck bed packaging unchanged. He noted that the vehicle’s size and floor-mounted battery means the Scouts suffer none of the driving-dynamics challenges that have bedeviled earlier rear-engine vehicles.
But the fact remains (which the CEO dodged), that hanging mass aft of the rear wheels necessarily reduces potential cargo and trailer tongue-weight, so it’s difficult to imagine that a clean-sheet EREV truck—especially one interpreting a traditional design that includes a long hood—wouldn’t have put the engine right where Ford and Ram will—in the front.
Volkswagen EA211 Engine in 1.5-liter TSI turbo passenger-car guise.
What About that Engine?
All we know for certain is that it will be a naturally aspirated four-cylinder sourced from Silao, Mexico, and based on legacy Volkswagen architecture. We know that plant currently builds the EA211 in 1.5-liter turbo form, and the EA888 engine as a 2.0-liter turbo. Logic suggests Scout will take the 1.5-liter aluminum-block engine, re-plumb it for free breathing, cam it for mostly continuous-rpm duty in the 1,800–2,000 rpm range for level cruising, 3,200–4,200-rpm when towing a load up a grade, and occasional forays to 5,000 rpm in short bursts for peak power. It should need about 230 hp.