Volkswagen board to discuss U.S. assembly plant on Friday, report says

BERLIN/HAMBURG – Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board will discuss plans to build a new U.S. factory at a meeting on Friday, two sources close to the matter said, with one adding the board was expected to approve the project.

The factory is a new plant for the Scout brand, according to one of the sources, which Volkswagen has said will be designed, engineered and manufactured in the U.S. with production due to start in 2026.

Volkswagen declined to comment. The automaker has previously said a decision on whether to build a plant for the brand had not yet been made.

Scott Keogh, the former VW Group of America CEO who last year was tapped to lead Scout Motors, also declined to comment.

Last week, Automotive News sibling publication Automobilwoche, citing company sources, reported that VW Group decided to build the Scout plant on its own after considering contract manufacturers Foxconn and Magna.

Volkswagen is expanding its Chattanooga plant to produce the ID. Buzz -- but the Scout brand will build off-road electric pickup trucks and SUVs that require a new platform. The Chattanooga plant does not have enough space to do it all, a source told Reuters last May.

Scout and Travelall vehicles made by International Harvester were forerunners in both function and style of popular SUVs from the Detroit 3, such as the Ford Bronco and Chevrolet Suburban.

Harvester stopped building the Scout and Travelall in 1980, but Volkswagen's Traton SE business acquired U.S. truck maker Navistar in 2020, which owns the Scout name.

Volkswagen has said reintroducing the brand is a key part of its strategy of achieving a collective 10 percent U.S. market share across all of its brands.

Separately, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann last week told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that the luxury brand is considering building a plant in the U.S. to take advantage of the subsidies offered through the Inflation Reduction Act. However, he said, a decision has not been made.

It was unclear whether VW Group will consider producing Scout and Audi vehicles from the same U.S. plant.

In March last year, VW Group announced it would invest at least $7.1 billion in North America through 2027 to build up its regional electric vehicle production capacity — including construction of a battery plant as well as overhauls of its assembly plant in Puebla and an engine plant in Silao, Mexico — and bolster interim internal combustion engine-powered production.

Automotive News contributed to this report.