Scout Motors picks South Carolina for brand spanking new $2B EV plant

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Volkswagen Group-backed automotive firm introduced plans this week to open a $2 billion electrical truck and SUV manufacturing plant simply outdoors of Columbia, South Carolina.

Scout Motors Inc. and South Carolina officers stated Friday that the corporate can be establishing its first manufacturing plant in Blythewood at an industrial web site. At full capability, greater than 200,000 autos could also be produced yearly on the facility, which is predicted to create 4,000 or extra everlasting jobs, Gov. Henry McMaster’s workplace stated in a news release.

Scout Motors, an impartial firm headquartered in Virginia and backed by Volkswagen, plans to provide all-electric vans and SUVs within the model of the Scout autos produced by Worldwide Harvester between 1960 and 1980.

“Scout Motors will present hundreds of South Carolinians with beforehand unimagined alternatives and prosperity for generations to come back,” McMaster stated in a press release. “The Palmetto State, with its wealthy historical past, superior individuals, and sterling automotive manufacturing repute, is the proper place to re-start this iconic American model.”

Automobile manufacturing is focused to start by the tip of 2026, based on the information launch.

The Scout deal is predicted to obtain county-level tax incentives which have already acquired preliminary approval, The State reported. It wasn’t instantly clear what state-level incentives the mission could have been supplied, based on the newspaper.