Volkswagen Group’s electrical pickup truck and SUV impressed by the Worldwide Harvester Scout, and to be offered by a newly established Scout Motors, is being developed with Magna Worldwide.

The data was revealed by Scout CEO Scott Keogh in an interview with Automotive Information (subscription required) printed on Friday.

Keogh mentioned VW Group did not have the engineering employees required to develop a body-on-frame platform appropriate for the brand new Scouts and that Magna was useful in getting the challenge transferring.

“When the Scout thought began, we had zero engineers,” he mentioned. “However in fact we wished to get transferring on the tempo, so Magna was useful at that part to get issues transferring.”

Scott Keogh

Koegh’s feedback come after Kleine Zeitung reported final week that Magna Steyr, Magna’s Austrian unit that builds the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and different automobiles underneath contract, together with the Fisker Ocean electrical crossover, was serving to to engineer the Scouts in a deal valued at 450 million euros (roughly $493 million).

Magna Steyr presents improvement companies along with its contract manufacturing companies, and was tapped by Mercedes for its newest G-Class, together with the upcoming electrical model. Magna Steyr additionally helped develop the Ocean crossover, and the Grenadier off-roader from the U.Okay.’s Ineos. It beforehand labored on some VW Group initiatives, again when it operated as Steyr-Puch.

In his interview with Automotive Information, Keogh mentioned Scout’s personal engineers at the moment are main the challenge.

Scout on Thursday named Burkhard Huhnke as its chief know-how officer. Huhnke is a VW Group veteran with an engineering background, and previous to becoming a member of Scout he labored at semiconductor firm Synopsys, in addition to Fisker the place he was additionally chief know-how officer.

Teaser for Scout Motors electrical SUV and pickup truck

Manufacturing of the Scouts will happen at VW Group’s personal plant to be constructed close to Columbia, South Carolina, which the automaker introduced earlier this yr. Near $2 billion is anticipated to be invested within the website, which VW Group mentioned may churn out 200,000 automobiles yearly.

VW Group acquired the rights to the Scout title with its buy of Navistar, a successor firm of Worldwide Harvester, in 2020. It then established Scout Motors within the U.S. in 2022, tasked with improvement and advertising new Scout EVs.

VW Group has beforehand mentioned it is going to present a Scout idea in 2024, and that it targets a beginning value within the $40,000 bracket. The automaker has additionally launched a pair of teaser sketches that trace at what’s to come back.

Keogh mentioned the SUV will likely be launched first, possible in 2026, with the pickup to observe six to seven months later. A rugged Audi SUV concentrating on the likes of the G-Class and Land Rover Defender can also be developed utilizing the Scouts’ underpinnings.