Scout reports 212,000 reservations as South Carolina plant nears finish

Reservations are not guaranteed sales, a distinction underscored by electric pickups including the Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertruck, which attracted strong interest without that necessarily translating into substantial purchases. Keogh said Scout could roughly double its reservation tally by the time customer production begins, but emphasized the challenge of converting interest into orders.

“It’s been a consistent drumbeat,” Keogh said in an interview at the plant site outside Columbia. “I think we could easily be up over 400,000 with reservations without doing too much effort. The big thing for us is how much of the initial production can we 100% presell.” He said an order book covering 12 to 18 months of production “would be great” and that he believes the company can reach that point before production starts.

Scout said Thursday that construction is in its final phase. Its vehicles will be offered as all-electric models and as extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs. The hybrid variants use an engine as a backup generator for the electric motors and batteries.

The Scout name belonged to an American vehicle brand that operated from 1961 to 1980. Volkswagen-backed Scout had initially been expected to offer only EVs as the German automaker sought to expand its U.S. presence. Slower-than-expected EV adoption and higher costs prompted the company to add EREVs, according to the source article.