Scout Motors celebrated the beginning of building on its $2 billion electric SUV plant in South Carolina on Thursday not with a line of individuals in fits with shovels however with a nod to the corporate’s gasoline-powered previous.
A fleet of previous Scout automobiles drove a brick from the positioning of the previous manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana — the place the rugged, boxy precursors to SUVs had been constructed within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies — to the positioning the place Volkswagen Group-backed new firm is attempting to revive the model.
Scout thinks the marketplace for its $50,000 electrical SUV isn’t with a futuristic look however somewhat one thing resembling how the automobiles as soon as regarded however with all of the environmental and driving advantages of an electrical automobile.
“While we are honoring the hard-working heritage and the soul of Scout, we are ready for the future when it comes to production and technology,” mentioned Christian Vollmer, a member of Volkswagen’s prolonged government committee.
The plant in Blythewood, South Carolina, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Columbia is predicted to open in 2027 and make use of as much as 4,000 individuals if Scout Motors can hit its purpose of constructing and promoting 200,000 automobiles per yr.
South Carolina provided $1.3 billion in incentives to Scout Motors, together with plans to construct a brand new interchange on Interstate 77 resulting in the plant, a railroad bridge over the freeway and big enhancements to sewer, energy and different surrounding roads. There are additionally grants the corporate can use for no matter it must get manufacturing going.
The Scout Motors site will be part of BMW in Greer and each a Volvo and a Sprinter van plant close to Charleston as South Carolina continues to attempt to change into an automaking hub, particularly within the electrical automobile market.
“The competition is fierce in the Southeast. People are leaving the Rust Belt and the snow and want to come here where there’s economic freedom,” Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster mentioned on a sunny 60-degree Fahrenheit (16 Celsius) mid-February day.
Scout Motors made gasoline-powered automobiles for about 20 years when it was owned by Worldwide Harvester. Manufacturing led to 1980, however their form and options proceed to affect trendy SUVs. Scouts have had a distinct segment fanbase of collectors ever since.
The Volkswagen-owned Scout Motors enters a rising, however unsure U.S. market. Patrons of electrical automobiles get federal tax credit, however a Republican win within the 2024 presidential election might finish that program and result in tariffs that will probably increase costs.
“If you get it, it’s a strategic opportunity. But you have to plan without those things,” Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh mentioned.
Thursday was a celebration for Scout Motors. Because the speeches had been being made, the beep beep of building automobiles might be heard throughout. The tons of of visitors needed to keep on short-term pathways to keep away from the mud.
Keogh guarantees an environmentally pleasant plant. Scout deliberate a gathering later Thursday with tons of of residents who dwell close by to point out them what they had been doing to guard the land and be a superb neighbor.
He additionally promised a enjoyable electrical automobile that gained’t be like every other on the market.
“What we’re doing here is relaunching an American icon,” Keogh mentioned. “And we’re doing it here in South Carolina.”
