- EV model affords 350 miles; larger battery can be detrimental
- EREV system will go 150 miles on battery, then 350 miles on gasoline
- Guarantees full system efficiency whether or not on battery or vary extender
- Rivian-based structure guarantees to maintain electrical vans “recent”
It’s been almost two years since Volkswagen’s Scout Motors electrical SUV model introduced a $2 billion South Carolina manufacturing unit and began to emerge from stealth mode. However will probably be one other two years earlier than these fashions are due for his or her first deliveries.
Primarily based on the reveal of its Traveler SUV and Terra pickup in idea variations proven final fall, together with costs stated to start out beneath $60,000, and govt feedback so far, Scout has laid out a number of the fundamentals for the model.
Scout will, on one hand, supply a glance again to the previous: rugged EVs with squared-off styling impressed by the traditional Worldwide Harvester SUVs comprised of 1960 to 1980. It gained’t be a ruse both, as Scout guarantees to construct unparalleled DIY, back-to-basics simplicity into these vans, with an method that makes them straightforward to restore your self.
Scout idea inside
However alternatively these vans might be backstopped by some modern components, together with a very new infotainment interface referred to as Group UX, plus a zonal structure and software-defined car foundation conceived by the brand new three way partnership between the VW Group and Rivian. That’s an thrilling level, and it opens up all types of alternatives that would add complexity or simplify, relying on the tip product.
Might Scout’s standout pairing of nuts and bolts and clicky buttons, crossed with the potential of satellite-data-delivered function upgrades, assist make EVs standard with a brand new group, or will it’s the McDLT of electrical SUVs?
It appears like fairly the balancing act from a expertise and engineering perspective, and that’s why Inexperienced Automotive Reviews checked in with Scout Motors chief expertise officer Burkhard Huhnke final month at CES. As these fashions push forward from the idea to the prototype stage, the CTO revealed numerous particulars in regards to the model, the vans, and the tech.
Scout Terra idea
Scout: Trailblazing EV range-extender format
From an engineering standpoint, the elephant within the room is that, amongst Volkswagen Group’s core passenger car manufacturers—VW, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bentley, plus Seat, Škoda, and Cupra—Scout is trailblazing. There is no such thing as a present body-on-frame SUV and there’s by no means been an EV with a spread extender.
“It’s in fact a chance,” stated Huhnke. The CTO underscored that it’s the primary body-on-frame car within the group, the primary mannequin with the ladder-frame idea, and the primary such car with an EREV propulsion system (a plug-in sequence hybrid system, to be dubbed Harvester). “Every little thing has been developed as a unit—platform—which has the chance as a versatile platform to be scaled, possibly, sooner or later,” he stated.
“Our IP has been generated in-house,” stated Huhnke, in regards to the EREV system, referring to it as one other core competence for Scout. So the engine, the generator motor, and different parts will come from elsewhere within the VW Group, Huhnke verified, whereas Scout is managing all of it in a unified system.
“The operational technique, it’s fully ours,” he elaborated. “We can’t construct an engine ourselves, however the vary extender itself is so charming; you’re utilizing a BEV structure beneath and simply carrying a type of DC charging system with you.”
Huhnke didn’t give any hints about what engine, or sort of engine, may be used right here from the huge VW Group components bin. However addressing a possible sore level—ask some former BMW i3 REx house owners—he assured that drivers would have the “full efficiency of the system” whether or not utilizing the battery or continually charging from the vary extender. Primarily based on cutaways proven by Scout Motors, the vary extender might be small, and can mount not beneath the hood however on the rear of the car, behind the rear axle and beneath the cargo ground—an method that can preserve the frunk however hopefully not impinge on off-road angles.
Scout Traveler SUV idea
Why does Scout EV peg 350 miles of vary?
Why did Scout determine that 350 miles is sufficient for the BEV, whereas Rivian, as an example, pushes to 410 or 420 miles and the Chevy Silverado EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ push it out to 460 miles?
Put bluntly, it could be near the constraints of what matches throughout the ladder body. However Scout additionally didn’t wish to be seen in the identical firm as fashions just like the GMC Hummer EV, Huhnke let on. It’s a matter of retaining weight beneath management—which is what the EREV model achieves.
Cramming in additional batteries, Huhnke defined, can be detrimental. “You possibly can improve the driving vary by including increasingly capability into the battery, and that’s rising the burden drastically,” he stated. “Or it’s maxed out by the prevailing house of the ladder body.”
Scout claiming 500 miles with in gasoline range-extender kind
Huhnke stated that the EREV model—which Scout CEO Scott Keogh not too long ago stated extra prospects had been ordering due to vary anxiousness—will ship an electrical driving vary of round 150 miles, then a further 350 miles with the range-extender. “So in complete, 500 miles, that ought to be ample; it’s a commerce off in between the burden equation and the capability of the battery.”
The one different absolutely electrical fashions that experience on such a setup—physique over ladder body—are the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class EV (or G580 with EQ Expertise, in Mercedes advertising parlance). The latter matches a 116-kwh battery pack contained in the body rails, whereas the Lightning matches as much as 131 kwh. Scout hasn’t stated what measurement its battery packs are, but it surely makes clear it didn’t wish to go super-sized.
GM’s full-size electrical pickups and SUVs, as launched within the GMC Hummer EV, make use of a construction that mixes features of body-on-frame and unibody development, counting on a thick battery pack to supply a number of the structural advantages of a body. However these fashions’ curb weights soar previous 9,000 kilos.
Scout Traveler idea
Scout EVs might be off-roaders to the core
Scout may also want a brand new degree of traction and stability management programs catered to off-road conditions—and Hunke assured that these are taking kind in-house along with chassis and propulsion improvement.
“We’re going to have an air suspension built-in as a suspension system itself (his emphasis),” stated Huhnke, which can permit new ranges of tuning and discount of noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). And he says it’s how Scout reconciles this with off-roading that might be one other core competence.
“We had determined to have this off-road functionality, and subsequently we determined to make use of a extra typical method on the chassis and propulsion system,” he stated. “Which means now we have one e-beam (an electrical motor included right into a stable axle), as an example, because the rear axle.”
How a lot of all of that is actually being engineered by Scout Motors? Some improvement is occurring inside Scout, plus “competence in-house to design, simulate, and run sturdiness testing,” defined Huhnke. “In fact we’re working along with suppliers. We can’t simply rent a whole staff; that doesn’t make sense.”
Scout Terra and Traveler ideas
Optimizing for weight, aero, sustainability
What Scout is doing quite a lot of in-house is optimizing, by way of a improvement path that’s been completely different than something the VW Group has made to this point, Huhnke defined. Growth has emphasised using AI and digital twins—one of many auto-industry tech buzzwords of the 12 months—permitting the staff to check structural particulars, design particulars, or engineering adjustments beneath, in a manner that wasn’t attainable earlier than with out bodily prototypes.
“Combining the total compute energy in 3D fashions with a mixed AI method provides us prompt outcomes for adjustments in aerodynamics or construction,” stated Huhnke, including that having a brand new manufacturing unit and its larger ranges of accuracy will profit from this advantageous tuning.
On the way in which from idea to production-bound prototypes, that’s been particularly helpful in reconciling the design from chief design officer Chris Benjamin’s staff with underbody airflow. Huhnke stated that it’ll additionally assist the staff obtain its focused prime U.S. security scores from the NHTSA and the IIHS.
You gained’t discover carbon fiber within the Scout vans, nor a lot aluminum. The Scout electrical vans comply with a “conventional supplies method,” stated Huhnke, however the optimization method and simulation is resulting in a critical weight discount. It made selections to emphasise metal partly based mostly on carbon footprint, he stated. “We’re fastidiously going by way of the fabric listing and optimizing from that standpoint,” stated Huhnke. “Should you discuss carbon fiber, it’s all the time interesting for use from a weight optimization perspective, however not from the sustainability perspective.”
Rivian and Volkswagen Group electrical structure and software program stack
Radically completely different, Rivian-based underpinnings
Whereas the body-on-frame and solid-axle underpinnings counsel a conservative method to those automobiles general, what’s beneath connecting parts might be one of the modern layouts within the {industry}.
“With the brand new three way partnership between VW and Rivian, now we have an opportunity to make use of zonal structure as one of many first manufacturers, and that provides us the OTA alternative we all the time wished to have,” stated Huhnke. “So new options, new updates over a lifetime…we’ll preserve the automobiles recent.”
The CTO is referring to the adoption of Rivian’s zonal structure, which permits an unlimited discount of the variety of separate management items across the car, and a discount of the quantity of wiring, connectors, and different related items. With software-based controls for zones, it provides rather more flexibility to roll out adjustments that would retune, refine, or redefine how a core element works—the dream of the software-defined car.
Scout has confirmed that its electrical vans will run on 800 volts, and be able to charging at as much as 350 kw—and that they’d help some degree of bidirectional charging functionality. Altogether, which may make it extra superior in some elementary features than Rivian’s present R1 lineup whereas additionally harnessing Rivian’s extra superior electronics structure. The VW Group pioneered 800-volt programs within the Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT, and it’s now in a rising group of PPE automobiles together with the Porsche Macan Electrical and Audi Q6 E-Tron.
Scout Traveler idea
However there are many particulars but to return. Scout will emphasize tactile buttons and controls and gained’t bury gadgets in infotainment menus, Huhnke promised. But the Scout vans will be capable to each monitor car diagnostics and handle predictive upkeep with cloud-based companies, with push updates when required. It additionally plans to construct satellite tv for pc web into its vans, however Huhnke recommended that it’s nonetheless figuring out make {that a} seamless a part of the expertise.
Two years from now Scout will present a really completely different expertise versus Rivian fashions, and maybe a unique expertise versus every other EVs available on the market. Whether or not or not it’s successful relies on value, specs, and extra, in fact, however maybe extra so, whether or not truck sorts are charmed by this very authentic mixture of the previous and the longer term.
