Scout Motors names former VW executive Burkhard Huhnke as CTO

Scout Motors has added another key executive with ties to Volkswagen Group as the electric vehicle brand continues to build out its management team.

Burkhard Huhnke joined Scout as its chief technical officer in November. Huhnke, 56, reports to Scout CEO Scott Keogh and leads the brand's engineering strategy and team, the company said. Scout is set to reveal an SUV and pickup next year.

Scout plans to begin vehicle production at its assembly plant in Blythewood, S.C., by the end of 2026 with sales to start soon after.

"His responsibilities are to engineer and bring these two brilliant products to the road," Keogh told Automotive News. "He'll work in partnership with production to make sure everything he's engineering is buildable."

Huhnke was most recently chief technology officer at EV brand Fisker, having joined the automaker in 2020.

He also held various roles over a 20-year span with Volkswagen Group, including stints as head of product engineering at the automaker's Chattanooga plant and executive director of the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory in California.

Prior to Fisker, Huhnke was vice president of automotive at California's Synopsys Inc., a chip design company.

"I know the startup world on one side and then the other side, the more traditional world, and take the best out of both," Huhnke said in an interview.

Huhnke follows other key hirings by Scout this year.

In August, Scout said Jan Spies would join as chief production officer in early 2024 to oversee manufacturing of its vehicles and the launch of its South Carolina plant. Spies is currently Volkswagen AG's head of planning and production technology.

In May, Scout named veteran Stellantis designer Chris Benjamin its chief design officer.