It’s been a year since VW confirmed the Scout’s return — and a new report notes a finished deal for Magna-Steyr to develop the SUV and pickup.
More than two decades ago, Europe’s largest automaker leaned on Austrian manufacturer Magna-Steyr to ready the first-generation Audi TT for mass-market production. Now, Volkswagen is turning to the firm once again, this time to develop its American-focused Scout SUV and pickup. According to Austrian outlet Kleine Zeitung (translated from German), the two parties completed a 450 million Euro ($492 million) deal to get the new models ready by calendar year 2027. To date, this is Magna-Steyr’s largest development order from an automaker. Keep in mind, this is the company that’s also responsible for building the BMW Z4 (and the co-developed Toyota Supra), as well as the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the Jaguar E-Pace and I-Pace, the BMW X3 and helped develop the Fisker Ocean. It will also, in time, engineer and build the electric version of the new Ineos Grenadier.
While the KZ report does cite unnamed sources for the information, this mostly tracks with news we’ve seen over the past year-and-a-half about VW’s revival of the Scout brand. There is one major exception here, though, in that Magna was also supposed to manufacture the new vehicles in the US. However, the outlet says, “Nothing came of it”. So, Volkswagen will instead assemble the Scout SUV at a $2 billion facility in Blythewood, South Carolina, while Magna will tackle the development side of the equation.
There are still several details in the works, as the initial launch of the new Scout is still more than three years out, at least according to the most recent information. Eventually, VW aims to launch the SUV version first with a starting price around $40,000, followed by a pickup truck. Selling a truck in our market pretty much necessitates the automaker complete that South Carolina plant, as building the trucks here will avoid the 25% “Chicken Tax” that’s kept it from selling its ICE-powered Amarok here all these years. The Scout program may also act as a springboard for new Audi models, which VW Group may also build at the SC plant later in the decade.
What exactly is “Scout”, anyway?
If you aren’t 100% caught up on how Volkswagen has the Scout name or where it even came from, here’s a primer. VW acquired the Scout name back in 2020, when its commercial vehicle group Traton (formerly Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG) took over American truck maker Navistar in 2021. Prior to 1986, Navistar was instead called the International Harvester Company, which produced the Scout SUV from 1961 to 1980 as a rival to the Ford Bronco and Chevrolet K5 Blazer, among others.
In the modern era, Volkswagen hopes to cash in on the Scout’s status as a cult classic and a pioneer of the SUV movement with the original Scout models.
