The Volkswagen Group’s upcoming electric brand, Scout Motors, announced today that it will build its first manufacturing plant outside Columbia, South Carolina. The location is expected to cost $2 billion and will require up to 4,000 workers to operate. With that, it teased it’s new pickup truck and SUV in a new rendering.
“We’re honored to partner with South Carolina to usher in this new era for Scout,” said Scott Keogh, the automaker’s CEO. “Today, we’re reimagining Scout’s original ingenuity and electrifying its future. We’re bringing the Scout spirit to South Carolina and it’s going to be a hell of a ride.”
Read: Audi And Scout Both Looking At Manufacturing In The U.S.
The factory will be built on a plot of land that is roughly 1,600 acres large, with the plant itself taking up about 1,100 acres of that area. Bordered by the I-77 and Blythewood road, Scout says that the plant is less than 20 miles from Columbia and that it is ideally located to take advantage of the talent pool coming out of major South Carolina cities and universities, where automotive engineering is already strong.
In addition, Columbia is about a five-hour drive away from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the Volkswagen brand operates a plant that is already capable of producing electric vehicles, like the ID.4 crossover.
Scout says that the plant will be capable of producing more than 200,000 vehicles per year, when it is running at full capacity. Previous reports suggest that Audi is also looking at making EVs in the U.S. to take advantage of federal tax incentives, and that it could share a manufacturing facility with another Volkswagen brand.
Separately, the group’s CEO said in December that the automaker is looking at locations for its first North American battery factory, and that Canada is “one logical option” because of its raw materials. If that comes to be, it would likely be the source of batteries for Scout’s upcoming EVs.
For now, though, the brand says that it expects to break ground on its new South Carolina plant this summer. Production of the new pickup truck and SUV, which the automaker says will be reminiscent of classic Scout vehicles, is expected to begin before the end of 2026.
