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BLYTHEWOOD, SC – The picture of the tech agency in-built a ranch-house storage has grow to be firmly established in American startup tradition. And whereas Volkswagen operates on a scale that will confound even essentially the most entrepreneurial Valley upstart, the Scout is nonetheless absolutely embracing that perspective. Nowhere is that this extra evident than on the web site of its enormous new Blythewood residence in South Carolina, the place, over the following 12 months, a state-of-the-art mid-Twentieth century manufacturing facility shall be put in. The ranch was affectionately known as Little Pink Home by its new multinational landlord.
It's a easy factor – a 1,000-square-foot wood rectangle lined with bricks on a easy crawlspace basis with a low-pitched ceiling. It could have been a type of GI Plan properties constructed through the post-World Warfare II increase. The land itself is equally mundane; One in every of two farmsteads that had been mixed to kind the parcel now occupied by Scout. It was neither the house of a Civil Warfare marketing campaign nor the location of early European settlement. Simply one other mattress of historical Atlantic sediments and eroded Appalachian ridgeline. However lots of of miles away from Scout's places of work at VW Group headquarters, the Pink Home serves as a stage for early planners – an anchor level, not just for the bodily location, however for its historical past – and maybe to offer the corporate its Wanted .
Like this land, the Scout is international to Volkswagen. Preserving this outwardly irrelevant piece of its historical past represents a type of acknowledgment that the Scout is strolling the place others have already dared to stroll. This was evident from the assembled assortment of Scout vans that had been introduced for the groundbreaking. Some belonged to loyal followers, some from the Scouts themselves, and others from aftermarket firms which have saved decades-old vans on the street – or maybe extra appropriately, saved them working lengthy after they'd been fully incinerated.
Whereas the small crimson home serves as a stage of kinds for visiting officers and dignitaries, its long-term goal shall be extra ceremonial than useful. Whereas the manufacturing unit will take form over the following 12 months, the Scout workforce shall be lots of of miles away, working to deliver its first two fashions to market, and that's no straightforward activity when you will have the equal quantity of a retired model and no No product. The whole automotive identification is being reinvented and a brand new model Bible is being created – actually, actually. In its present kind, it’s identified merely because the Scout Encyclopedia, and to the extent that this can be true in immediately's cloud-based world, Scout employees have a duplicate on each desk. I'm positive someplace in that workplace, there's a photoshopped picture of a Volkswagen ID.4 from the '35s with a large crimson line drawn by way of it.
Greater than something, we anticipate the Scout to supply two body-on-frame fashions that may dangle with the likes of the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, Land Rover Defender or Toyota Land Cruiser, and so they'll accomplish that solely with electrical powertrains . There is no such thing as a ICE security valve for this undertaking. Scout has learn all the identical headlines you will have, firm CEO Scott Keogh assured us. Nobody is coming nose to nose; For those who suppose Volkswagen has some secret plan to re-introduce diesel to the US market through a nasty new 4×4, you'll discover a extra practical story between two covers labeled “Harry Potter.”
It's too early to name the Scout the actual deal; To date we’ve got the southern soil of iron-red clay and a powerful handshake. However in South Carolina it goes too far; Right here's hoping it pays dividends for lovers. As for the little crimson home? This isn't going anyplace. It should stay on on the Blythwood property as a reminder of what was right here earlier than – and what may very well be subsequent, if Volkswagen as soon as once more misses the mark in what has been a difficult marketplace for the corporate. This time, they're doing it on American soil with an American nameplate. In the event that they fail, nevertheless, the little crimson home will nonetheless be standing, able to encourage the following spherical of keen go-getters intent on making their mark on this wealthy Carolina soil.