EVwire brief: Scout Motors has completed the first test weld of a Scout Traveler body at its Production Center in Blythewood, South Carolina, a validation milestone the company says keeps it on track for customer deliveries in 2028.
The body won't reach a customer. It's a validation build meant to prove out the assembly line itself before real production starts, and CEO Scott Keogh used the milestone to reassure reservation holders that the timeline is holding.
“Today marks another one: the first time welding a vehicle body at our Production Center in Blythewood, South Carolina. [...] Running these processes allows us to validate our engineering before customer production begins.
“Every weld, every component, and every lesson learned helps us improve the way we build and gets us one step closer to delivering Scout vehicles in 2028. [...] our factory isn't just being built … it's building.”
The first Traveler body welded at Blythewood won't ever reach a driveway, but it's proof the line itself works
The Paint Shop is inching along a similar path. Carriers already installed back in April now have company, with lighting and paint systems in ongoing installation, per Scout's latest update.
The factory’s paint shop shows significant progress, with carriers installed and lighting and paint systems in ongoing installation.
Context:
EVwire covered the plant's progress in April, when the Body Shop had just finished installing more than 700 robots and the Assembly Hall was still laying its first roller-track sections. Since then, the roof has caught up: industrial air conditioning units are finished across the Body Shop and are now going in on the Assembly Building, while the Supplier Park's buildings have their own AC units installed and are starting on access roads.
The real question hanging over Blythewood has never been construction progress, it's timing. Scout's own website still lists 2027 for the start of production, but an April report from forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions, relayed by Carscoops, put the Traveler's start of production from March 2028 to September 2028. The Terra pickup was reportedly pushed back to March 2030, nearly two years past Scout's original target.
The Supplier Park buildings (upper right) are now getting access roads, part of Scout's separate $300 million expansion
Scout's response at the time was that customers would "begin taking delivery of new Scout vehicles in 2028" regardless of when the line itself starts running. Keogh's welded-body update, and its pointed nod to 2028 deliveries, reads like Scout sticking to that same script.
The Production Center itself is a $2 billion, 1,100-acre investment announced in March 2023, expected to employ more than 4,000 people and build up to 200,000 vehicles a year at capacity. It will produce the Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra pickup on a new body-on-frame platform, each available as a battery-electric model with an estimated 350-mile range or with the extended-range "Harvester" gas engine targeting up to 500 miles. $100 fully refundable reservations remain open for both.
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