I understand that VAG's goal is to make a line of all-electric vehicles, and the website says that they're "making the next generation of all-electric trucks and rugged SUVs for American drivers". However, as someone who grew up wheeling and have seen lots of things break, I'm worried about the off-road ruggedness/usability of the new Scout. For effective off-road driving, low weight is paramount, and electric vehicles are characteristically very heavy. The way to lighten the vehicle would be to limit battery capacity, but that would significantly decrease the range of the vehicle, which already will be lower than advertised because of use of electrical accessories (winches, lights, etc). Additionally, no one is going to want to trailer their Scout to a trail. You have to be able to drive the Scout to the trail, run the trail, and then drive it back home. Most of us aren't blessed to live on 300 acres off forest land to go wheeling on, and will have to drive a while to get anywhere worth going.
The other downside I see of electric-only powertrain options is that when you do break something or run out of energy out in the woods, there is no way to quickly repair it. Unlike traditional combustion engines or hybrids, there is no real way to carry extra power/gas/range on an electric vehicle without severely weighing down an already heavy vehicle. Outside of sending out a recovery truck with a diesel generator and charging the Scout for 8 hours, or some sort of swappable battery system, the Scout is going to be straight out of luck.
There are other pre-existing options for electric SUVs with off-roading pretensions (Jeep 4xE, Rivian), and there will likely be more by the time the Scout actually makes it to production. However, as mentioned other places in this forum, these vehicles have shown significant flaws and failures. The marketing and forum introduction talk about the enthusiasts and rabid community, but the people that love the old IH Scouts don't want a styling exercise by Volkswagen to cash in on a known name. They want a reliable, durable, capable vehicle that isn't just hypothetically capable on a spreadsheet, but actually fun to drive off-road while being road-legal. These people are going to end up buying Ford Broncos or other trucks because of the inherent disadvantages of electric off-roaders. Something like a modern turbodiesel seems like it would check all the boxes to be a true Scout while still being efficient and EPA compliant (it also allows the use of a manual transmission, which would be EXTREMELY desirable to the enthusiast community). Without something like that, the Scout doesn't provide any reason to be purchased over the other options outside of the fact that it looks like a 50 year old, mostly forgotten truck.
With that in mind, how is the Scout going to be different than the other options available on the market? How will it be able to be rugged and reliable for farther than 60 miles off-road? Would it be possible to see biodiesel/hybrid options by release? Is there action to try to integrate a hydrogen fuel system into future versions?
The other downside I see of electric-only powertrain options is that when you do break something or run out of energy out in the woods, there is no way to quickly repair it. Unlike traditional combustion engines or hybrids, there is no real way to carry extra power/gas/range on an electric vehicle without severely weighing down an already heavy vehicle. Outside of sending out a recovery truck with a diesel generator and charging the Scout for 8 hours, or some sort of swappable battery system, the Scout is going to be straight out of luck.
There are other pre-existing options for electric SUVs with off-roading pretensions (Jeep 4xE, Rivian), and there will likely be more by the time the Scout actually makes it to production. However, as mentioned other places in this forum, these vehicles have shown significant flaws and failures. The marketing and forum introduction talk about the enthusiasts and rabid community, but the people that love the old IH Scouts don't want a styling exercise by Volkswagen to cash in on a known name. They want a reliable, durable, capable vehicle that isn't just hypothetically capable on a spreadsheet, but actually fun to drive off-road while being road-legal. These people are going to end up buying Ford Broncos or other trucks because of the inherent disadvantages of electric off-roaders. Something like a modern turbodiesel seems like it would check all the boxes to be a true Scout while still being efficient and EPA compliant (it also allows the use of a manual transmission, which would be EXTREMELY desirable to the enthusiast community). Without something like that, the Scout doesn't provide any reason to be purchased over the other options outside of the fact that it looks like a 50 year old, mostly forgotten truck.
With that in mind, how is the Scout going to be different than the other options available on the market? How will it be able to be rugged and reliable for farther than 60 miles off-road? Would it be possible to see biodiesel/hybrid options by release? Is there action to try to integrate a hydrogen fuel system into future versions?
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