WHAT SCOUT'S EARLY SUCCESS TEACHES OTHER TRUCK AND SUV EV STARTUPS

Deep down, car lovers are always rooting for every new startup. Whether they're producing something you'd actually want to drive or not, more success stories mean more options and a healthier automotive ecosystem. But the industry has always been a tough one to break into, and the list of startups that failed to go the distance could fill a phone book, so the success of Scout Motors has been nothing short of remarkable.

At last check, there were more than 50,000 reservations in place for the upcoming 2027 Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra pickup, and the division of those reservations may help to point out what, exactly, it's doing right. The Traveler SUV is the most popular model, by a 70:30 split, and the Travelers equipped with Harvester Range Extenders are especially popular. Here's how Scout is planting its flag in the increasingly crowded EV marketplace.

A Look At The Scout Terra And The Scout Traveler

Like Rivian, with the R1S and R1T, Scout is launching with a pair of truck and SUV siblings, slated for a 2026 release for the 2027 model year. Though not identical (based on the data currently available), the Terra and Traveler are definitely two of a kind, sharing more dimensions and technical specs than not.

• 2027 Scout Terra

  Engine  Electric

  Torque  Up to 1,000 lb-ft

  0-60 MPH  3.5 sec. estimated

  Towing Capacity  10,000 lbs

  Electric Range  350 miles
• 2027 Scout Traveler

  Engine  Electric

  Torque  Up to 1,000 lb-ft

  0-60 MPH  3.5 sec. estimated

  Towing Capacity  7,000 lbs

  Electric Range  350 miles

Targeted specs are not final, but if the Terra and Traveler land within spitting distance of these numbers, they should match or beat most electric SUVs and pickups on the market. For reference, a Ford F-150 Lightning with an extended range battery can tow up to 10,000 lbs, and the strongest R1T can tow up to 11,000 lbs.

Just taking a look at these stats, the first thing Scout is doing right is simply delivering models on par with what drivers have come to expect of this segment. That is, Scout isn't starting on the back foot, and it's not giving buyers a chance to say "the extended range is nice and all, but Ford tows more."

The Harvester Range-Extender Is Winning Over New EV Drivers

S&P Global Mobility ran an illuminating poll on electric vehicles in 2023. Here are some key takeaways:

• 48% of respondents said that prices were too high.
• 42% said they were considering an EV for their next purchase.
• 29% said they wouldn't want to drive an EV with a minimum range under 300 miles.
• 62% are "waiting until vehicle technology improves" before they make the leap.

While range anxiety is less of a concern today than it has been in the past, the S&P poll suggests that it's still a major concern for around one in three drivers. It may be easier to shrug these worries off if you live in a densely populated metropolitan area, and if you mainly use your vehicle for the morning commute and getting the kids to school and back. If you live somewhere rural, where a grocery trip might be 60 miles there and 60 miles back, or if you spend a lot of time on backroads and dirt trails, where it's a lot easier to pack a can of gas in the bed of your truck than it is to find a charging station, it's a whole other story.

This is where Scout's Range Extender has turned out to be, what they call in the software industry, a killer app. That is, there's actually a reason to buy a Terra over an R1T or an F-150 Lightning, because the Harvester extends the base 350-mile range to an expected 500 miles.

Converting New Customers, Not Just Poaching From Ford And Rivian

The concept is pretty simple: it's a gas-powered generator packed into the vehicle, intended to recharge the battery pack so that you can get more range between charging stations. But, the really clever thing about the Harvester isn't so much how it works, but that Scout is actually expanding the EV customer base through innovation, rather than simply taking bites out of Ford or Rivian's market share. 50,000+ reservations should be proof enough that there are plenty of people out there who liked the idea of an electric SUV or pickup, but just couldn't see themselves buying one unless they had a backup plan for when the battery runs out. Well, now they do.

Scout Is Avoiding The Common Pitfalls, Too

Making the right decisions is important for a startup, and so is avoiding the wrong ones. Put simply: good ideas aren't enough, as Fisker Inc. has illustrated. Founded by BMW, Ford, Tesla, and Aston Martin veteran Henrik Fisker, the automaker's Ocean SUV was packed with luxury-tier features like heated seats and enormous 17.1-inch touchscreens as standard features, and the vehicle was priced fairly even before the price was dropped to $38,999. So, what went wrong? Put simply, the money wasn't there. Fisker relied on a sprawling foundation of loans and private investments to get the ball rolling, and, when that wasn't enough to meet production targets, they were left with few other choices but to file for bankruptcy.

The same thing happened to Radford Motors. The heavy reliance on a constant influx of new cash from investors simply isn't enough to support a project of this magnitude. We're talking about the mass-production of motor vehicles, after all. This isn't a small business like an Etsy shop or a food truck. It's expensive work. Being backed by Volkswagen, Scout has had no such worries. While Scout Motors operates as its own company, it only answers to one investor, and that investor is the second-biggest automaker in the world, after Toyota.

Funding, And Focus

It doesn't hurt that Scout knows better than to move the goalposts. While Tesla is hardly an example of an unsuccessful startup, the fact that we don't have a new Roadster has a lot to do with the bigger and bigger promises being attached to the project. Elon Musk is on record stating that the car will be able to fly for brief intervals. So, anyone wanting to build a new EV, there's rule number one: don't tell the public that the car can fly unless you've already got it figured out.

Sources: Scout Motors, Wired, S&P Global Mobility.

2025-01-30T14:21:24Z