It was revealed last week that Volkswagen Group is bringing back the Scout name with two new electric off-road ute and SUV models. The vehicles will begin production in 2026 with prototypes making their debut next year.
But VW dealers based in the US say they heard about the news at the same time as the rest of the world and weren't given any warning about the announcement.
This caused an upset within the US VW dealer community, as it would have been nice to know what was happening before the world found out. But making matters worse, it looks like they seemingly won't have a claim to any of the Scout brand's sales.
Scout is set to be an independent company under the VW Group's portfolio, similar to Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and so on. For that reason, Scout vehicles won't be sold at VW dealerships. This has dealers up in arms, as it's believed Scout could take on a more direct-to-consumer sales approach when it launches in 2026.
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"That's what it feels like to me," said an anonymous VW dealer. "If we were going to have any involvement, they would have told us something. But they haven't said a word to us, either before or after the announcement."
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VW's head of sales and marketing, Andrew Savvas, supposedly sent a note to all 650 of the brand's stores after the anonymous comment was made. He reportedly confirmed Scout will be its own entity and that VW dealers won't have a claim to Scout sales.
But it is a possibility that existing VW retailers could be offered expansions that include Scout franchises first, but there is no guarantee. Another anonymous VW dealer says "I would hope, after all that we've been through together, that we would at least get the first crack at them."
The vehicles will kick off the revived Scout brand with production beginning in 2026. Eventually, VW's Scout will be producing as many as 250,000 vehicles per year.