I don't know the finances of these dealerships in the US but I have to believe a lot of them are hanging by a thread and by the time the remaining Jags trickle off the lots any momentum the Defender had going into the pandemic will now start to wane. Currently they primarily have some demand building from the low-budget crowd who couldn't afford new in 2020 and haven't been burned by the reliability issues with their pre-owned Defenders (yet). That'll all come home to roost eventually too. IMO when it comes to building momentum the Defender is only thing JLR has to hang their hats on and even if they lose say 25% of sales due to the Scout in the US it may prove to be significant enough to put some of these dealerships out of business. Those 150k electric jags when they do arrive aren't going to build much momentum I can be pretty sure of that.

 

It isn't being engineered by the Touareg team, it is being designed, engineered and built in the US for the US market, and according to the reveal livestream, they are expecting more than 80% of all the parts used to build it will be from the US. Basically it is an American startup backed by VAG and will benefit from their manufacturing/production expertise. While it is an American team engineering these vehicles, I have no doubt they will have engineering support from Germany. They are also making it clear that while they are backed by VW, they are an independent company. I'm betting the Harvester range extender will probably be the EA888 I4 that is used in nearly every VAG product.

 

I've watched several of the YouTube reviews and interviews.

They are using the VW parts bin for things the customers won't see, like window regulators. That makes sense. Proven tech, affordable, already a repair/replacement supply chain in place.

I'll be interested to see what engine they will use. One analyst did the math to conclude they will need a sizeable engine to produce enough power to keep it moving at highway speeds - the BMW i3's range extender can't do that, and will leave the car going 30 on the highway if there's no juice left in the battery.

As at least one reviewer noted, a nice Porsche boxer engine is in the parts bin, would fit in the space available, and would have plenty of power. But might drive the cost to unobtanium.

I'm looking forwar to learning more about the drive train. One view showed that the electric motor is on the axel - lots of unsprung weight. But maybe that's how you can have a true locking differential in an EV? Or could they have separated the motor from the axel? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Exactly; for things like window/mirror switches, headlight controls, seat motors, gear levers etc. it makes sense to use parts-bin parts. Hopefully they don't use the window switches from the ID.4, which has two window switches for the driver. If you want to roll down the rear windows, there is a button marked "rear" and only once that is pressed you can use the window switches to control the back windows. The problem is the part has enough space for four window switches. It is the worst piece of cost-cutting I've seen in a modern vehicle.



I think the EA888 will be sufficient for a range extender. The upcoming Ram 1500 Ramcharger will be using the 3.6L Pentastar V6 as its generator for a 92 kWh battery. The EA888 makes more power than the Pentastar in some configurations, and I'm sure the Scout's battery will be somewhat comparable in size to the Ram. The H4 engine used in the Boxster could also be a logical choice, but I think you're right - it'd cost too much and we all know that Porsche doesn't like sharing its in-house engines.

You can have an electronically-controlled mechanical locking diff on an EV. The Hummer has a front electromechanical locking diff, but the two motors at the rear use software to mimic a locking diff.

 

hmm, could be I misspoke. I'll have to rewatch Kyle Conner from Out of Spec's comments, he had dinner with the chief engineer of these before the reveal. I thought he said that some on the Traveler team worked on the Touareg as well (in what capacity he didn't say).