We've had many firsts on our way to delivering Scout® vehicles. We hired our first production associates. We received our first parts. We turned the lights on in our factory for the first time. Today marks another one: the first time welding a vehicle body at our Production Center in Blythewood, South Carolina. No, this isn't a vehicle that will end up in driveways, campsites, or trailheads. But it is helping us prove something just as important: how we'll build every Scout vehicle that follows. 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. There's still plenty of work ahead. But for the first time, our factory isn't just being built ... it's building.
Scott Keogh - Congratulations to the entire Scout team. 👏 Having spent over two decades on the supplier and manufacturing side, this deeply resonates on how much of invisible work sits behind a single weld on day one, supplier readiness, process validation, tooling, training, etc. Every one of those "firsts" you mentioned represents hundreds of people aligning toward a shared outcome. 2028 feels closer already. Wishing the Blythewood team a smooth ramp-up. Looking forward to seeing Scout vehicles out on driveways, campsites and trailheads soon.
For me, as a bodyshop guy, this is always the most exciting and rewarding phase of a project. It’s like bringing the virtual world to life. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment, and I’ve been involved in this project for a long time, even back when the cars existed only in CAD. Keep on rocking 💪
A great milestone! What was the biggest learning from the first welding trial that will influence full-scale production?
This is the kind of milestone that makes Scout feel real — not just a comeback story anymore, but a company physically taking shape weld by weld. Exciting to see the factory move from being built to actually building. 2028 is going to be special.
Scott Keogh Nice! I thought the comment was going to talk about adjusting the home positions of the two closest robots, since...they appear to be in attack mode on your Production Center team (like a Transformers movie)! Apparently, I'm not an engineer and thankful you have a team in place taking care of the real issues.
Our factory isn't just being built, it's building." That line is going to be the one people remember from this post. Was at the Training Center opening in April watching the first production associate cohort come through. The first weld and the first graduate are different milestones but they're the same story told from two sides of the same factory floor. 2028 is going to come fast from here.
This is an extremely important phase for every large scale operations. A smooth ramp-up depends strongly on well prepared tryouts which in turn safes (exponential) costs in series production and safeguards output, resulting at the end in satisfied customers from the beginning. I wish you and your team good luck and success.
Congratulations to the SCOUT team! This is a major milestone on the way to building a fleet for all the testing procedures, PT builds and finally SOP. Loved working with in Automotive for over 40 years. Still smell that specific odor of oiled stampings getting welded together in a body shop.
NICE! From a lifetime Technicians' point of view: I am always interested in new car companies. A friend asked me, being a technician, which brand or make should they buy? I said they were all junk in some way. I retired from working on vehicles about 5 years ago. My car is a 2020. I won't say the make. It's been a good car with regular maintenance. It has 208,000 miles on it now. But compared to what I have worked on in the past, this thing is a space ship! Please don't over complicate these new cars in the name of "convenience". As an operator of a vehicle and a technician, I want to be the one who does the thinking. Not the car, or some engineer that doesn't know the specific circumstances I'm in.
Looks good! Someone needs to adjust home position of the two closest robots though! They appear to be directly over your cap changer/dressers. If a leak eventually develops on the weld gun or if a cap is blown and it makes it to home position, you risk water getting into the gearbox for the dresser and causing premature failures.