If you’re excited about the reborn Scout Motors, you’re not alone. The South-Carolina-based Volkswagen subsidiary says it has more than 150,000 reservations for its upcoming Terra pickup and Traveler SUV, and enthusiasm has only increased since Scout announced that it was pivoting from an all-electric vision to embrace gasoline range-extenders. But that functionality does come with a caveat.
That makes sense, right? After all, the single most-cited obstacle to doing “truck stuff” (towing, hauling, pulling) with an EV is the resulting range penalty. Apart from cost, the availability of a range-extending generator should be all upside. Today, we’re learning that Scout’s implementation comes at the cost of towing capacity—and not just a little bit of it. Scout CEO Scott Keogh just told Motor Trend that those who check the box for the optional gas generator will see their maximum tow ratings slashed in half, from a max of more than 10,000 pounds (for the Terra pickup) down to just 5,000.
Based on the more than 2,700 confirmed reservations being tracked on the Scout EV forum, this will be relevant to more than 85% of of buyers. Only 13% of those raising their hand opted for the all-electric model.
Scout has leaned heavily into the truck-like qualities of its revived 4×4 nameplate. The Terra and Traveler will be body-on-frame EVs with solid rear axles and mechanical locking differentials. On the EV side, each offers an 800-volt architecture that should support high-throughput fast charging. Scout wants both trucks to offer 1,000 pound-feet of torque and hit 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds, while offering a minimum of 350 miles of range for the all-electric models. The “Harvester” range extender bumps the single-charge range to 500 miles, and of course, offers the convenience of quick fuel-ups.
Sporty figures are nice, but what happened to the “truck” stuff? Scout wants both models to offer 2,000 pounds of payload capacity (more than the Rivian R1T or R1S). The Traveler is expected to offer 7,000 pounds of towing, while the Terra would top 10,000 (R1S towing caps out at 7,700 pounds; the R1T at 11,000 pounds). Meanwhile, the Ram 1500 REV is aiming for 14,000 pounds of towing; whether that figure will come down with Ram’s own range extender remains to be seen.
All that said, there’s still plenty of time for things to change at Scout before production begins. Recent rumors suggest that won’t happen until 2028.
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