Scout Terra Pickup Reportedly Won't Go Into Production Until March 2030, And The Traveler SUV Is Delayed Until September 2028

In February 2024, when I went to South Carolina for the groundbreaking of Scout Motors' brand new factory, the Volkswagen-owned automaker said production of its upcoming truck and SUV would start in 2026. Eight months later, when the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup were unveiled, Scout said the production models were a bit delayed, set to come out in 2027 instead. In the year and a half since then, Scout has shown the concept trucks in new colors and with some new accessories, but we haven't publicly seen any test mules or prototypes (though a handful of test rigs do apparently exist in real life), and the factory is still in the process of being built.

Two months ago, reporting from German publication, Der Spiegel said the Scouts had been delayed even further due to technical problems with the trucks' development, with production not set to start until summer 2028. CEO Scott Keogh somewhat confirmed that about a week later, saying that he expected customers to get their hands on Scouts sometime in 2028. Now, a new report from AutoForecast Solutions, brought to our attention by Autoline, says Scout's delays are even worse than we thought. The Traveler SUV's start-of-production date has been pushed back to September 1, 2028, while the Terra pickup apparently won't enter production until March 1, 2030. That is a long-ass time from now. In fact, that would mean a longer wait for Terra buyers than Tesla Cybertruck buyers endured, as that model was shown in concept form in November 2019 and went into production four years later.

The AutoForecast Solutions report doesn't have any other information beyond the Scouts' internal model codes (SSP B/C, if you care about that sort of thing), but it does say production of the Traveler will end on my birthday, August 28, 2037, and the Terra will continue through February 27, 2039. Those would be pretty typical lifecycles for a vehicle like this. The Traveler coming out before the Terra also isn't new news, as it will definitely be the more popular body style (more than 70% of reservations are for it), though a nearly two-year gap between the two is surprising. 

Scout's main website hasn't changed any of its wording, with the reservation page still saying that initial production is "targeted for 2027." But Scout's online support site tells a different story. A FAQ page that was updated a few weeks ago reads, "Initial production is targeted to begin in 2027. We will start producing initial validation vehicles in 2026. That effort will continue and mature into 2027. We expect customers will begin taking delivery of new Scout vehicles in 2028." When reached for comment via email, a Scout spokesperson reiterated that same statement, adding that they have no comment on the AutoForecast Solutions report and "do not have anything additional to share regarding timing beyond what we've already announced."

We've already known that more than 87% of Scout's 160,000-ish reservation holders want the Harvester range-extender powertrain, so those EREV models will launch before their fully electric counterparts, though at this point I'd be surprised if the electric models happen at all, given the U.S.' current attitude towards EVs. But it's the EREV and its four-cylinder generator engine mounted under the floor behind the rear axle that are allegedly causing the most engineering problems for Scout — among the various issues we've heard about, the EREV's towing capacity might be cut in half compared to the EV, though Keogh promises Scout is working on some "solutions" to that problem.

Obviously, you want to take Reddit comments with some hefty grains of salt, but on one post about the Der Spiegel report, Redditor TheDirtDude117 said, "I'm in Columbia SC with a few friends who work on the engineering side and it's... Grim for sure. No information about their ICE generator, no software for it, and the luggage department floor being over 200⁰C while testing has them all tweaking their resumes but hoping the checks keep getting cleared." 

When another commenter joked that his friend should try engineering solutions to those problems, he replied, "Sadly not their department. Issue is more about the engine being used & its placement causing Intake + Exhaust issues but they can't really do much until they also have software or a harness. Their focus is more on EV Scouts than the Range Extender but with the delay being announced hopefully that will pivot. The plant is also having contractors nearly drop multi million dollar equipment because they wouldn't listen so it's a hilarious cluster **** going on." Sounds... not great!

I genuinely love how the Scouts look, and I think there are a lot of cool ideas swirling around the brains of the company's designers and engineers, but the specs already seemed outdated when the concepts were revealed, and that is only becoming more apparent as time goes on. Scout said it was targeting a 350-mile range for the fully electric models, while the EREV would be able to do up to 500 miles. Back in fall 2024, when the Scouts were first shown, you were already able to buy electric pickups from Rivian and General Motors that could go well over 400 miles on a charge. There aren't any range-extender pickups currently on sale, but Ram promises its REV will be out this year with a 690-mile range, and Ford's next-gen Lightning will be out next year as an EREV with more than 700 miles of range. By the time 2028 (and 2030!) rolls around, I don't know if Scout's range and performance figures will cut it, to say nothing of the other planned features, specs, and attributes that may or may not make it to production.

Then there's the problem of Scout's planned direct sales model, which has resulted in multiple lawsuits from Volkswagen dealers. Scout is doubling down on direct sales, though, and I hope the company continues to. Dealers suck. And at least Scout is proceeding full steam ahead on its factory construction, publishing monthly updates about how things are going. Whether or not the factory ends up building Scouts or other Volkswagen Group vehicles remains to be seen.