Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%
A major link in Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain has just snapped. South Korean battery material supplier L&F Co. announced...
electrek.co
Extra, Extra....Read All About It!
- Thread starter Harris005
- Start date
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From all of us at Scout Motors, welcome to the Scout Community! We created this community to provide Scout vehicle owners, enthusiasts, and curiosity seekers with a place to engage in discussion, suggestions, stories, and connections. Supportive communities are sometimes hard to find, but we're determined to turn this into one.
Additionally, Scout Motors wants to hear your feedback and speak directly to the rabid community of owners as unique as America. We'll use the Scout Community to deliver news and information on events and launch updates directly to the group. Although the start of production is anticipated in 2026, many new developments and milestones will occur in the interim. We plan to share them with you on this site and look for your feedback and suggestions.
How will the Scout Community be run? Think of it this way: this place is your favorite local hangout. We want you to enjoy the atmosphere, talk to people who share similar interests, request and receive advice, and generally have an enjoyable time. The Scout Community should be a highlight of your day. We want you to tell stories, share photos, spread your knowledge, and tell us how Scout can deliver great products and experiences. Along the way, Scout Motors will share our journey to production with you.
Scout is all about respect. We respect our heritage. We respect the land and outdoors. We respect each other. Every person should feel safe, included, and welcomed in the Scout Community. Being kind and courteous to the other forum members is non-negotiable. Friendly debates are welcomed and often produce great outcomes, but we don't want things to get too rowdy. Please take a moment to consider what you post, especially if you think it may insult others. We'll do our best to encourage friendly discourse and to keep the discussions flowing.
So, welcome to the Scout Community! We encourage you to check back regularly as we plan to engage our members, share teasers, and participate in discussions. The world needs Scouts™. Let's get going.
We are Scout Motors.
electrek.co
Especially if Walmart makes good on it's promise to install it's own DCFC network.
YouTube video from Out of Spec Reviews about Walmart DCFC installs.
As much as everyone thought when the EV Charging Government funding was stopped, that EV infrastructure would be ended. Its really only has amplified the amount of infrastructure development. Ive seen alot of development recently.
Bummer that it’s delayed. I’ve never seen one of the Lincoln units in person. That’s cool.
They look industrial and also antiquated at the same time... They're also only 150kWh peak so not at the same level as the 350kWh+ chargers from Alpitronic or Delta
There was an attempt to claw back the NEVI funding under the current administration and funds were frozen.
It wasn't until later this year that NEVI funding was thawed.
Federal Judge Orders Unfreezing of Billions for EV Infrastructure Funding
The Trump administration paused funding for electric vehicle infrastructure earlier this year, prompting lawsuits from 16 states. A federal judge has ordered a reversal of the action while the U.S. Department of Transportation weighs its legal options.
insider.govtech.com
After Trump administration’s funding freeze, EV charger program moves forward
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has dismantled or suspended many of the federal government’s climate programs.
spectrumnews1.com
NEVI has the backing of many states and bi-partisan support at the state and federal level. At this time it is uncertain if any further legal challenges will be brought to try and stop further NEVI build out under round 2.
I believe Georgia has already begun administrative tasks to start round 2 and possibly awarded funding.
Georgia DOT Awards $24.4 Million in Federal Funds to Expand EV Charging Network
Georgia State Transportation Board has approved awards for the second round of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program
cobbcountycourier.com
All GREAT news.There was an attempt to claw back the NEVI funding under the current administration and funds were frozen.
It wasn't until later this year that NEVI funding was thawed.
Federal Judge Orders Unfreezing of Billions for EV Infrastructure Funding
The Trump administration paused funding for electric vehicle infrastructure earlier this year, prompting lawsuits from 16 states. A federal judge has ordered a reversal of the action while the U.S. Department of Transportation weighs its legal options.
After Trump administration’s funding freeze, EV charger program moves forward
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has dismantled or suspended many of the federal government’s climate programs.
NEVI has the backing of many states and bi-partisan support at the state and federal level. At this time it is uncertain if any further legal challenges will be brought to try and stop further NEVI build out under round 2.
I believe Georgia has already begun administrative tasks to start round 2 and possibly awarded funding.
Georgia DOT Awards $24.4 Million in Federal Funds to Expand EV Charging Network
Georgia State Transportation Board has approved awards for the second round of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program
China has two chargers for every five electric vehicles. When we get to this the tables will turn. Range issues will be an ICE problem. It will be difficult to find a gas station.
Last edited:
EIA: All net new generating capacity in 2026 may be renewables
All net new generating capacity in 2026 is forecast to be provided by renewables and batteries, according to new EIA data.
electrek.co
I didn’t know that either. They can certainly do better than 150kW.
Charger market is moving so fast. That project was allocated some time ago.
Ugh paywall.Scout Motors' Aileen Barraza on the power of CMF (Color, Materials, and Finish)
(+) Scout Motors' Aileen Barraza on the power of CMF
Aileen Barraza, design director at Scout Motors on the revolution of CMF in car design, blending innovation with emotion to shape automotive creativity.www.cardesignnews.com
Scout Motors' Aileen Barraza on the power of CMF
Car DesignNewsPublished 30 December 2025 - 11:00
Aileen Barraza – design director, CMF, at Scout Motors – talks through her career so far and how Scout Motors works differently when it comes to CMF
I never set out to be a car designer. At CCS in Detroit I studied industrial design with a furniture minor and swore I’d never go into the car industry as I thought it would ruin my love of cars. Then Ford called me before graduation and asked me to come talk to their colour and materials team. I thought I’d just try it out, not stay long. That was 25 years ago.People still think colour, materials and finish – CMF – is just decoration. It’s not. It’s the first thing customers see and feel. From across the lot it’s the colour that grabs you. When you open the door it’s the texture, the stitch, the warmth. If we’ve done it right you don’t even know why you love it, you just know you have to have it. That’s CMF.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
My first project at Ford was the Police Interceptor. Not glamorous, but it taught me to listen. Those cars are tools. Officers get in and out hundreds of times a day, spill coffee, scuff the seat bolsters with their holsters. You have to design materials that can take that beating and still look decent. Then I moved on to the Sport Trac, Explorer – and the 2008 crisis – when half the studio was gone and the younger ones were left to ship a major programme. Brutal, but it made me learn fast.
Later I ended up on the F-150 and that was a whole new ball game. Same geometry across 13 to 17 series, and the only thing that separates a work truck from a six-figure luxury model is CMF. I pushed for real wood and real leather when people thought I was nuts. But customers wanted it. They were walking into dealerships, ticking every box and suddenly the marketing team was telling me, “we need you to break $100,000.” That’s when I really learned the business side of materials.
After 15 years I thought I’d done what I came to do at Ford but then got a call to join Rivian after its LA reveal in 20?CHK?. When I joined Rivian the CMF team was literally one person. No suppliers, no processes. Just two beautiful concepts and a deadline. But the ethos there stuck with me. Rivian taught me to share. Before that everything felt secret, you had to be first to market. At Rivian it was like, if we’ve got a sustainable vinyl that’s better, why wouldn’t we want everyone to use it?
After almost five years at Rivian, I wanted to move back to Michigan so my girls could grow up near family. That’s how Scout came along. Honestly, it started with one of those random LinkedIn messages. It felt like the right time and the right challenge.
At Scout, head of design [CHK exact] Chris Benjamin set the overall form language but gave me free rein on CMF. That’s a dream. We didn’t want safe grey interiors. We wanted warmth and contrast. On the show cars we did fabric uppers with leather lowers, we played with cool and warm tones, we used antique tan leathers. One of my favourite details is what we call Earth’s plaid. Flying back and forth to California you look down at the fields, all those crops in different directions. It makes this natural grid pattern. We turned that into a design element that nods to Scout’s roots without being retro.
The timeline was insane. I had maybe seven months to set the CMF direction and less than a year to reveal vehicles. We had to build a team at the same time. Now we’re six people. I lead with servant leadership — I’m not the type to tell people to stay late and then go home. I’m right there in the trenches. Respect goes a long way.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
And we work differently here. Exterior, interior and CMF are equals. We don’t do separate reviews. We sit in one room for hours and hash it out together. I call it the design trifecta. At Ford I always fought to sit in the studio next to the clay modelling guys because that’s where the real conversations happen. CMF can’t just come in at the end to decorate. We have to be part of the design from the start.
The hardest part is always cost. If you start with numbers you kill creativity. I start with the ‘wow’ moment – what do I want the customer to feel when they open the door? Then we work back into cost. That might mean changing a backing material, sharing tools, shortening a part that no one sees. But I won’t compromise on what the customer touches.
Looking back, every step has been about making the right call for the customer. Police officers who needed stain-resistant fabrics. Truck buyers who wanted luxury. Rivian owners who cared about sustainability. Scout customers who want expression. It’s always about listening, then solving.
I never meant to go into automotive. But I stayed because CMF is where design meets emotion. A stitch isn’t just a stitch. It’s that sigh when someone opens the door and falls in love without knowing why.
Thanks for posting the whole article. Good read.Scout Motors' Aileen Barraza on the power of CMF
Car DesignNews
Published 30 December 2025 - 11:00
Aileen Barraza – design director, CMF, at Scout Motors – talks through her career so far and how Scout Motors works differently when it comes to CMF
I never set out to be a car designer. At CCS in Detroit I studied industrial design with a furniture minor and swore I’d never go into the car industry as I thought it would ruin my love of cars. Then Ford called me before graduation and asked me to come talk to their colour and materials team. I thought I’d just try it out, not stay long. That was 25 years ago.
People still think colour, materials and finish – CMF – is just decoration. It’s not. It’s the first thing customers see and feel. From across the lot it’s the colour that grabs you. When you open the door it’s the texture, the stitch, the warmth. If we’ve done it right you don’t even know why you love it, you just know you have to have it. That’s CMF.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
My first project at Ford was the Police Interceptor. Not glamorous, but it taught me to listen. Those cars are tools. Officers get in and out hundreds of times a day, spill coffee, scuff the seat bolsters with their holsters. You have to design materials that can take that beating and still look decent. Then I moved on to the Sport Trac, Explorer – and the 2008 crisis – when half the studio was gone and the younger ones were left to ship a major programme. Brutal, but it made me learn fast.
Later I ended up on the F-150 and that was a whole new ball game. Same geometry across 13 to 17 series, and the only thing that separates a work truck from a six-figure luxury model is CMF. I pushed for real wood and real leather when people thought I was nuts. But customers wanted it. They were walking into dealerships, ticking every box and suddenly the marketing team was telling me, “we need you to break $100,000.” That’s when I really learned the business side of materials.
After 15 years I thought I’d done what I came to do at Ford but then got a call to join Rivian after its LA reveal in 20?CHK?. When I joined Rivian the CMF team was literally one person. No suppliers, no processes. Just two beautiful concepts and a deadline. But the ethos there stuck with me. Rivian taught me to share. Before that everything felt secret, you had to be first to market. At Rivian it was like, if we’ve got a sustainable vinyl that’s better, why wouldn’t we want everyone to use it?
After almost five years at Rivian, I wanted to move back to Michigan so my girls could grow up near family. That’s how Scout came along. Honestly, it started with one of those random LinkedIn messages. It felt like the right time and the right challenge.
At Scout, head of design [CHK exact] Chris Benjamin set the overall form language but gave me free rein on CMF. That’s a dream. We didn’t want safe grey interiors. We wanted warmth and contrast. On the show cars we did fabric uppers with leather lowers, we played with cool and warm tones, we used antique tan leathers. One of my favourite details is what we call Earth’s plaid. Flying back and forth to California you look down at the fields, all those crops in different directions. It makes this natural grid pattern. We turned that into a design element that nods to Scout’s roots without being retro.
The timeline was insane. I had maybe seven months to set the CMF direction and less than a year to reveal vehicles. We had to build a team at the same time. Now we’re six people. I lead with servant leadership — I’m not the type to tell people to stay late and then go home. I’m right there in the trenches. Respect goes a long way.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
And we work differently here. Exterior, interior and CMF are equals. We don’t do separate reviews. We sit in one room for hours and hash it out together. I call it the design trifecta. At Ford I always fought to sit in the studio next to the clay modelling guys because that’s where the real conversations happen. CMF can’t just come in at the end to decorate. We have to be part of the design from the start.
The hardest part is always cost. If you start with numbers you kill creativity. I start with the ‘wow’ moment – what do I want the customer to feel when they open the door? Then we work back into cost. That might mean changing a backing material, sharing tools, shortening a part that no one sees. But I won’t compromise on what the customer touches.
Looking back, every step has been about making the right call for the customer. Police officers who needed stain-resistant fabrics. Truck buyers who wanted luxury. Rivian owners who cared about sustainability. Scout customers who want expression. It’s always about listening, then solving.
I never meant to go into automotive. But I stayed because CMF is where design meets emotion. A stitch isn’t just a stitch. It’s that sigh when someone opens the door and falls in love without knowing why.
Okay I love her. I hope she reads this. As a woman it’s amazing to see a woman in a role like this.Scout Motors' Aileen Barraza on the power of CMF
Car DesignNews
Published 30 December 2025 - 11:00
Aileen Barraza – design director, CMF, at Scout Motors – talks through her career so far and how Scout Motors works differently when it comes to CMF
I never set out to be a car designer. At CCS in Detroit I studied industrial design with a furniture minor and swore I’d never go into the car industry as I thought it would ruin my love of cars. Then Ford called me before graduation and asked me to come talk to their colour and materials team. I thought I’d just try it out, not stay long. That was 25 years ago.
People still think colour, materials and finish – CMF – is just decoration. It’s not. It’s the first thing customers see and feel. From across the lot it’s the colour that grabs you. When you open the door it’s the texture, the stitch, the warmth. If we’ve done it right you don’t even know why you love it, you just know you have to have it. That’s CMF.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
My first project at Ford was the Police Interceptor. Not glamorous, but it taught me to listen. Those cars are tools. Officers get in and out hundreds of times a day, spill coffee, scuff the seat bolsters with their holsters. You have to design materials that can take that beating and still look decent. Then I moved on to the Sport Trac, Explorer – and the 2008 crisis – when half the studio was gone and the younger ones were left to ship a major programme. Brutal, but it made me learn fast.
Later I ended up on the F-150 and that was a whole new ball game. Same geometry across 13 to 17 series, and the only thing that separates a work truck from a six-figure luxury model is CMF. I pushed for real wood and real leather when people thought I was nuts. But customers wanted it. They were walking into dealerships, ticking every box and suddenly the marketing team was telling me, “we need you to break $100,000.” That’s when I really learned the business side of materials.
After 15 years I thought I’d done what I came to do at Ford but then got a call to join Rivian after its LA reveal in 20?CHK?. When I joined Rivian the CMF team was literally one person. No suppliers, no processes. Just two beautiful concepts and a deadline. But the ethos there stuck with me. Rivian taught me to share. Before that everything felt secret, you had to be first to market. At Rivian it was like, if we’ve got a sustainable vinyl that’s better, why wouldn’t we want everyone to use it?
After almost five years at Rivian, I wanted to move back to Michigan so my girls could grow up near family. That’s how Scout came along. Honestly, it started with one of those random LinkedIn messages. It felt like the right time and the right challenge.
At Scout, head of design [CHK exact] Chris Benjamin set the overall form language but gave me free rein on CMF. That’s a dream. We didn’t want safe grey interiors. We wanted warmth and contrast. On the show cars we did fabric uppers with leather lowers, we played with cool and warm tones, we used antique tan leathers. One of my favourite details is what we call Earth’s plaid. Flying back and forth to California you look down at the fields, all those crops in different directions. It makes this natural grid pattern. We turned that into a design element that nods to Scout’s roots without being retro.
The timeline was insane. I had maybe seven months to set the CMF direction and less than a year to reveal vehicles. We had to build a team at the same time. Now we’re six people. I lead with servant leadership — I’m not the type to tell people to stay late and then go home. I’m right there in the trenches. Respect goes a long way.
ANDREW TRAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
And we work differently here. Exterior, interior and CMF are equals. We don’t do separate reviews. We sit in one room for hours and hash it out together. I call it the design trifecta. At Ford I always fought to sit in the studio next to the clay modelling guys because that’s where the real conversations happen. CMF can’t just come in at the end to decorate. We have to be part of the design from the start.
The hardest part is always cost. If you start with numbers you kill creativity. I start with the ‘wow’ moment – what do I want the customer to feel when they open the door? Then we work back into cost. That might mean changing a backing material, sharing tools, shortening a part that no one sees. But I won’t compromise on what the customer touches.
Looking back, every step has been about making the right call for the customer. Police officers who needed stain-resistant fabrics. Truck buyers who wanted luxury. Rivian owners who cared about sustainability. Scout customers who want expression. It’s always about listening, then solving.
I never meant to go into automotive. But I stayed because CMF is where design meets emotion. A stitch isn’t just a stitch. It’s that sigh when someone opens the door and falls in love without knowing why.
There’s just something different about the Scout interiors that you pick up on right when you see them and definitely in person. For such a big vehicle the interiors aren’t bulky. There’s intention and it’s feels more like the interior was designed with an eye for detail. So many vehicles you have to look at the badge on the interior to tell what it is.
The Scout, the material and color choices and design are not what I have come to expect these days and I so appreciate it. They are so much more. Once I saw the reveal video I was hooked and having seen the Traveler in person twice now I’m not even worried about what the production vehicles will look like.
To some people a car is just that, just a car. To me it’s more. It’s an expression of who I am and what I like and how I present myself to the world. It’s an extension of me. I think that’s why I have had so much difficulty settling on a car. The Traveler is it for me. I feel like a little kid on Christmas when I see them in person. It’s a constant smile on my face and lots of gasping.
Thank you for Aileen for your thoughtfulness and intention in design. Thank you also to the CMF team. I have faith and confidence in the team and this article solidifies why I was right to feel that way.
Well said. CMF team really has hit it out of the park.
A new blog story posted yesterday.
Really pretty blue on that Scout.
Really pretty blue on that Scout.
Ya. I read this this morning. Great story.A new blog story posted yesterday.
Really pretty blue on that Scout.
Thanks for sharing....Now I'm curious about this....
"Kelli recently got an old Scout some screen time for a Netflix® show, bringing to set an era-correct Scout 800B for a big scene"
Which show is this or will this be? Animal Kingdom had a green Scout II in the show which was awesome seeing time to time.
"Kelli recently got an old Scout some screen time for a Netflix® show, bringing to set an era-correct Scout 800B for a big scene"
Which show is this or will this be? Animal Kingdom had a green Scout II in the show which was awesome seeing time to time.
We definitely need to know which show this is. Like an official announcement on the forum when whatever this is will be on would be great.
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