Scout revealed its upcoming Traveler SUV and Terra pickup, modern takes on the classic International Harvester Scouts, featuring BEV and range-extended options with impressive towing and cargo capacities. Despite Scout's claim of independence from Volkswagen to sell directly, legal challenges from dealers are expected. Volkswagen faces union opposition over potential plant closures in Germany amid these developments. GM's new SAIC-GM hybrid powertrain showcases advanced efficiency in extended-range EV tech. The episode also highlights Bobby Allison's retroactive NASCAR win recognition, recent US lithium mining expansions, EU-China EV tariff tensions, Toyota's dominance in long-term vehicle ownership, and improvements in automated emergency braking technology.
Topics:scout suv and pickupdirect sales legal issuesvolkswagen union oppositionsaic-gm hybrid powertrainbobby allison nascar winus lithium miningeu-china ev tariffstoyota vehicle longevityautomated emergency braking
- Scout Surprises with EREV Option - VW Dealers Likely to Sue Scout - VW Labor Reps Could Scuttle Scout Plant - SAIC-GM Shows EREV-PHEV Powertrain - Bobby Allison Wins 1971 NASCAR Race - U.S. Ramps Up Lithium Mining Action - EU and China Still Negotiating Over EV Tariffs - Toyota Owners Keep Their Cars the Longest - AAA Tests Show AEB Improvements
"...cles certainly looked like modern versions of the International Harvester Scouts that went out of production forty four years ago...."
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Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of.
Speaker 2: The global automotive industry.
Speaker 1: Shohn's out on a media event today and I'm filling in well. Scout finally showed off the suv and pickup
it's going to come out with, even though they may not hit the market for another three years sometime in twenty twenty seven. Meet the Traveler suv and the Terra truck,
featuring a body on frame construction with a solid rear axle and rear mechanical locker for heavy off dude roading.
The vehicles certainly looked like modern versions of the International Harvester Scouts that went out of production forty four years ago.
They will feature a centralized zonal electronic architecture that almost undoubtedly is coming from Rivian. The new incarnations will be
offered as pure BEVs, but with Surprise Surprise and optional piston engine range extender. We're guessing that will be a
Volkswagen engine since Scout is owned by VW. The BEVs
will offer three hundred and fifty miles of range, while the e REV will have over five hundred miles. Both
will be priced under sixty thousand dollars, not including any incentives that may or may not be available in three years.
The Traveler SUV is rated at seven thousand pounds for towing, while the Terra pickup is rated at over ten thousand.
Both can carry up to two thousand pounds of cargo.
Scout is going to sell the Traveler and Terra direct to consumers, and it claims it can legally do so because even though it's owned by Volkswagen, Scout is actually an independent company, But Automotive News reports that VW dealers will likely take legal action if they are not provided with franchises to sell the v Franchise laws in the United States make it almost impossible for a car company that has used franchise dealers to suddenly start selling cars
on its own. Companies that have never used dealers, such
as Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid, are not compelled to use franchise dealers, but many states have made it difficult for them to sell cars directly to consumers anyway, So Scouts claim that it's independent of Volkswagen and can sell cars direct will almost certainly be tested in court by the NADA, the National Auto Dealers Association, and every other legacy auto maker will be closely watching the results of where that ends up, just in case they want to start an
independent company and start selling directly too. But here's another
thing that we have to watch about Scout. It may
be an independent company, but it's still owned by VW and Volkswagen is going through tough times. It's even threatening
to close several assembly plants in Germany, which has got German unions and labor reps on the supervisory board hopping mad.
Are they going to allow THEW to close plants in Germany while Scout's building a new assembly plant in the US.
Not if they can stop it. Because independent company or not,
Scout is still funded fully by Volkswagen AG, and the Supervisory board has a lot of clout when it comes to deciding where any investment goes. Several years ago, General
Motors decided to skip over hybrids and go all in on BEVs, but the growth in BEV sales slowed dramatically while hybrid sales are soaring. So GM is rushing to
come out with hybrids, and the latest PHEF from SAICGM in China might give us an idea of where it's going.
They call their new system true Dragon. It's a series
parallel hybrid, meaning it acts like an extended range EV in most cases, but its one point five liter IC engine can also connect to the front wheels, just like the Chevrolet Vault did years ago. This one uses a
flat wire electric motor that has a peak efficiency rating of ninety seven point eight percent. Its peak torque density
is fourteen point four newton meters per kilogram, and it has got a power density of seven point eight kilowatts per kilogram, which SAICGM says is thirty percent better than the industry average. It also features a double sided water
cooled IGBT module with a conversion efficiency of ninety eight point seven percent. Like other EREV systems, the IC engine
runs on a Miller cycle and uses a high compression ratio, though we don't have those specs yet or when this powertrain will be available for sale. In NASCAR news, Bobby
Allison was declared the winner of the Meyers Brother Memori ORIOL two hundred and fifty stock car race that ran in North Carolina in nineteen seventy one. You see, back
then there was a stock car series called Grand American that competed against NASCAR and USAC. But NASCAR did allow
the Grand American cars to run in some of its races, which is what Bobby Allison did, and he won the race in Winston Salem, North Carolina in nineteen seventy one, but NASCAR never recognized him as the winner even though they allowed him to race because he was entered as a Grand American entry. Well half a century later, all
of that was forgiven and the eighty six year old Allison was given a plaque officially recognizing him as the winner.
By the way, that added win moves him into fourth place in all time NASCAR wins, behind Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Jeff Gordon.
Speaker 3: Performance that shines even in the rain, that's what really matters.
Rich don't pretends at tires improved grip in wet conditions.
Speaker 1: Boy, There's been a lot of action with lithium mining in the US recently. Last week, GM announced it's investing
another six hundred and twenty five million dollars into a lithium mine in Nevada. Earlier this week, the US Geological
Survey announced it discovered a massive lithium deposit in Arkansas, and now the Interior Department gave final approval to open another lithium mine in Nevada. That mine is run by
Ioneer at a place called Rhyolite Ridge. Construction kicks off
next year and production starts in twenty twenty eight, with enough lithium to supply three hundred and seventy thousand evs annually.
Ford and a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic have agreed to buy the lithium from the mine. It took
the company's sixty year to get approval for the mine.
Because conservationists are fighting to protect an endangered flower in the area, a group called the Center for Biological Survey plans to sue the government to stop the mine, but the Interior Department says it does not believe the mine will harm the flower, and it says Ioneer has taken steps to protect it. The European Union's new tariffs on
imported Chinese EV's is supposed to go into effect next week, but the two sides are still trying to hammer out a deal to avoid them. Some alternatives could include the
Chinese promising not to sell evs below a certain price, or by committing to make investments in Europe. Europe boosted
tariffs unimported EV's up to thirty five percent earlier this year because an investigation found that government subsidies were giving the Chinese automakers an unfair advantage in the market. But
don't hold your breath or anything to happen, because the Yearuropean Commission says they are still significant remaining gaps. Toyota
owners sure loved their vehicles. According to a new study
from the website ic Cars, Toyota dominates the list of owners keeping their vehicles for fifteen years or more. Researchers
analyzed nine hundred and twenty nine thousand cars from the model years nineteen eighty one to two thousand and nine that were sold in the US between January and September of this year to find out which older vehicles are most likely to be kept by their original owner, and Toyota has got eight of the top thirteen models, including Lexus.
In fact, the top five were all Toyota, the Highlander Hybrid, the Camri Hybrid, the non hybrid Highlander, the Tacoma and the Prias And amongst brands that owners keep for fifteen years or more, that's all the Asian automakers. Not surprisingly
Toyota's number one, but it's followed by Honda, Lexis, Mazda, Hyundai, and Subaru. Automated Emergency braking has been around for years,
and now it's mandated on every new passenger vehicle sold in the US. But back in twenty seventeen and eighteen,
some of the earlier versions of AEB, as it's called, we're not exactly very good, as the Triple A found in a series of tests it did with older versions of the technology. Early versions of at AEB didn't do
too bad at twelve miles an hour, and they stopped in time at fifteen miles an hour put at twenty five miles an hour. Of yikes, the test car plowed
right through the car in front of it, But that was then. Today's automated Emergency braking easily handles emergency braking
at twenty five miles an hour, and it shows how AEB is improving. Now we hope the industry can get
it to start working at highway speeds. And that wraps
up this week's worth of reports. And by the way,
if you haven't done so already, would you please consider subscribing to this channel or sign up for the daily email on our website. Thanks for watching and have a
great read.
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