Call this a reality check: At less than a month old, Volkswagen's nascent Scout brand doesn't have employees, offices, executives, a factory or even a publicly disclosed product plan.
What it does have is a purchased semi-famous name, a rough sideview sketch of a planned battery-electric SUV and pickup, and a commitment from the head of the world's second-largest automaker to make it all happen in the United States at lightning speed.
That commitment, from Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess and unaccompanied by deeper details, has been enough to roil hundreds of U.S. dealers of the automaker's eponymous brand over the last few weeks like nothing since the German automaker's costly diesel emissions scandal.