Scout Motors Accidentally Learns That Shoppers Don’t Want a New Truck or SUV Without a Gas Engine Onboard- Should the Company Have Offered a V8 and High-Torque Hybrid Instead of Jumping Into Rivian’s Tiny and Shrinking EV Niche?

Scout Motors is a new startup with backing from VW, planning to resurrect the iconic Scout name and bring to market a new SUV and a new truck. They are the Terra Truck and the Traveler SUV. Scout had originally planned to launch its vehicles as electric. If this sounds a LOT like Rivian to you, you are not alone. Almost as an afterthought, and with little fanfare, the company decided to add an extended range version of its EV powertrain. That means it will have an on-board liquid-fuel generator. A little gas engine, if you will. Like GM’s now deceased Chevy Volt had. The reservation results are a wake-up call that may offer Scout Motors' investors the chance to avoid a major mistake.

What’s Scout’s Mission Statement?
Scout Motors markets itself as planning to build “Trucks for people who give a damn.” It also states that the company is about more than bending metal and plans a “...movement that unites a community of hardworking people looking to do the next good thing.” Presumably, these goals, which convey a sincere commitment to caring and doing good, align with the battery-electric movement’s ethos of zero local or tailpipe emissions. But with a supermajority of shoppers in every market on the planet still buying gas-powered cars, do these goals also translate to financial success?

Does America Want Electric Trucks and SUVs?
Scout is billing itself as all-American, despite being backed by VW. The sand in the gears is that American new vehicle shoppers don't seem very interested in electric vehicles. Last quarter, only 6% of shoppers opted to buy a battery-electric vehicle. That’s a lower percentage of shoppers than wanted a BEV in 2023 or 2024. For the full year, Cox automotive reports that EVs lost about 2% in volume as the overall industry grew by more than that. EVs had a full-year market share in 2025 of about 8%, the same level as the 2023 peak.

There were zero notable EREVs for sale, so there is no percentage of shoppers who bought any. Just how few EV models were sold in America last year? If you deduct the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y, the remaining 68 EV models combined earned just 3% of the U.S. new vehicle market in Q4. The share of Americans who purchased a battery-electric pickup or SUV is well below 1%. And it appears it’s getting smaller, not bigger. Why jump headlong into a tiny, shrinking market?

Automakers Already Building What Scout Plans to Make Are Bailing Out of EVs
2025 was an interesting year. During this 12-month period, GM committed to a new generation of V8-powered vehicles. GM and Ford saw solid gains of 8% and 6% growth in deliveries. However, their EV truck deliveries didn't add up to a hill of beans. Ford’s F-150 Lighting was taken out of production for lack of buyers and then given one behind the ear, ending the slow misery of a model that got fantastic reviews (from me included). Aside from some urban blue-state municipality, “sales,” the Lightning attracted almost no buyers. RAM saw the writing on the wall and canceled its plans to build an EV truck. Ford and others also canceled plans to introduce 3-row EV SUVs. Tesla’s failed Cybertruck is the biggest self-inflicted wound the auto industry has ever seen. Hyundai launched an EV SUV and received very few takers. Rivian makes a truck and SUV in the class that Scout plans to join. They even look somewhat alike. Deliveries in 2025 totaled just 38,000 units. Both Rivian models were down by 30% in Q4. Ouch.

The Scout Motors Reservation Revelation
Scout recently opened reservations, and about 130,000 people signed up. In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Scott Keogh said: 

Look, the market has spoken. Over 80% of the reservations are for the range extender.

 Another way to say this is that four out of five Scout reservation holders want a truck or SUV with a gas engine on board.

Why Isn’t Scout Making Powertrains Shoppers Actually Buy?
Now, let’s imagine what would happen if Scout added two more powertrain options. What if Scout added a HEMI V8 like the one RAM and Dodge make, and a Hybrid-Max engine like the one that Toyota puts into its massively successful Tacoma and Land Cruiser?  As a seasoned automotive prognosticator, I can tell you precisely what the result would be. 70% would want the V8, 25% would want the Hybrid-Max, and Scout would be on a path to making a ton of money and having a tremendously larger pool of potential shoppers.

Scout Motors - Stick With EVs, or Offer Powertrains Shoppers Want?
Scout Motors is about to enter a tiny battery-electric vehicle market of roughly 100,000 new EV truck and EV SUV buyers, a tiny, rapidly shrinking subsegment Rivian, Ford, Ram, Tesla, and others are struggling in. 

Does it make any sense for a new startup to try to share Rivian’s tiny market space when the automotive buying public clearly wants V8 and hybrid SUVs and trucks? Should Scout pivot to powertrains that actually sell before it’s too late? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.

Top of page image courtesy of Scout Motors U.S. media page.