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Audi is reportedly planning a rugged off-road SUV to compete with the favored Land Rover Defender and Mercedes-Benz G-Class, constructed within the US and based mostly on the Scout platform.
Citing sources aware of the matter, Automotive Information Europe sister publication Automobilwoche stories that Audi has dominated out constructing its personal US manufacturing facility and can as an alternative leverage Scout’s ladder-frame platform for the all-new mannequin.
Audi and Scout are each a part of the Volkswagen Group and Audi CEO Gernot Döllner has beforehand recommended a big off-road SUV would complement the premium German auto model’s increasing mannequin lineup, which might be joined by the all-new Q9 flagship SUV to be constructed alongside the next-generation Q7 on the VW Group manufacturing facility in Bratislava, Slovakia from 2026.
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“We haven’t given up on that dream,” Mr Döllner advised Automobilwoche when requested in regards to the potential for a big Audi off-road SUV tailor-made for the American market to rival the likes of the Defender and G-Wagen.
Each massive luxurious off-roaders have been smash-hits globally and in Australia, the place the Defender is JLR’s hottest mannequin by far, regardless of being priced from about $100,000.
With 3379 gross sales to October this 12 months – up 2.6 per cent year-on-year – the Defender is Australia’s top-selling massive luxurious ($80,000-plus) SUV.
And regardless of being obtainable in simply 4 variants priced above $200,000 – the G63 and G63 Offroad Professional AMGs, the diesel G450d, and the G580 EV – G-Class gross sales are up nearly 36 per cent to this point this 12 months, to 466.
First revealed in October 2024, the Scout Terra pickup and Traveler SUV are anticipated to enter manufacturing by late 2027, in a brand new plant the VW Group is establishing in South Carolina.
Scout CEO Scott Keogh advised Australian journalists on the Munich motor present in September that each retro-styled off-road fashions would finally be offered on this market, following their launch within the US and Canada in 2027.
“We need to nail America and Canada. These might be our first markets after which after that we’ll look to different markets and positively Australia’s on the record,” he mentioned.
“Clearly, we’re not naive. We see the market in Australia, we see you want these form of pickup vans – let’s say [the] ‘get open air, can-do’ form of automobiles, body-on-frame, rugged – and we’re definitely conscious of the chance.”
Like Scout, producing automobiles within the US for American shoppers – and doubtlessly right-hand drive export markets like Australia – will permit Audi to keep away from excessive manufacturing investments and US import tariffs.
Audi doesn’t presently construct automobiles within the US – a marketplace for which it depends on imports from Mexico and Europe – however had been contemplating the institution of a US manufacturing facility in places equivalent to Texas or VW’s current plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Mr Keogh just lately confirmed the potential for increasing manufacturing on the upcoming Scout Motors Manufacturing Middle, telling Automotive Information: “There may be definitely a risk that different thrilling merchandise from the group will certainly be constructed there.”
Whereas the Scout manufacturing facility may have preliminary annual manufacturing capability for greater than 200,000 automobiles, Audi is eager to spice up its market efficiency within the US, the place gross sales dropped by 8.0 per cent to lower than 130,000 automobiles within the first 9 months of this 12 months.
Larger import tariffs underneath the Trump administration have been not less than partly blamed for Audi’s US gross sales slowdown, which led the corporate to decrease its revenue forecast for 2025, whereas Audi CFO Jürgen Rittersberger has mentioned that US tariffs alone will value the corporate an estimated €1.3 billion for the complete 12 months.
Final 12 months the VW Group introduced it could revive the Scout model and provide an electrified off-road pickup and SUV impressed by fashions produced by Worldwide Harvester between 1961 and 1980.
Volkswagen got here into possession of the Scout title in 2021 when its Traton truck division purchased Navistar, the mother or father firm of Worldwide Harvester, which is the corporate that constructed the unique two-door Scout utes and SUVs.
Scout fashions might be based mostly on a ladder body and fitted with a strong rear axle, mechanical entrance and rear differential locks, and a entrance sway bar which might disconnect for higher wheel articulation. They’ll provide a water-wading depth of greater than 900mm.
To this point, Scout has proven off the battery-electric Terra dual-cab pickup and the Traveler SUV – each of which utilise an 800-volt electrical structure and twin electrical motors, providing as much as 563km of vary and a claimed 0-100km/h time of lower than 4 seconds.
Prolonged-range electrical automobile (EREV) variants with a petrol-powered range-extender engine are additionally deliberate, offering a further 240km of driving vary. Audi’s proposed Scout Traveler-based off-road SUV is predicted to be supplied with the latter EREV powertrain.
MORE: Volkswagen’s off-road model Scout eyes Australian launch
