Scout Motors, which has an electric vehicle plant under construction in South Carolina, will make its headquarters about 70 miles north in Charlotte with a $207 million investment that’s expected to create 1,200 high-paying jobs, state officials announced Wednesday.

Those jobs in research and development, IT, finance, sales, marketing and other corporate functions are expected to pay on average $172,878 a year, almost twice the current average wage of $86,830 for workers in Mecklenburg County.

German automotive giant Volkswagen bought the Scout name in 2021 with a goal of reviving the iconic American brand, manufactured by a division of International Harvester from the late 1960s until 1980.

Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh speaks as Gov. Josh Stein listens on Wednesday. Scout Motors announced on Nov. 12, 2025, that it would locate its headquarters in Charlotte.

Scout remains two years away from its first electric pickups and SUVs rolling off the assembly line at its plant in Blythewood, South Carolina, about 20 miles north of Columbia, but CEO Scott Keogh says excitement already exists for the brand. Scout has already received more than 130,000 pre-orders for the vehicles, which the company says it will price at $60,000 or less. Plug-in hybrid versions of Scout’s models are also planned.

“It is not just to bring back a relic, but bring back a revolution, bring back getting America to manufacturing things, dreaming things and doing things again,” Keogh said at Wednesday’s announcement, held on the site of its new headquarters. “And that’s exactly what we’re up to.”

Keogh brought with him on Wednesday a brick from Scout’s plant that closed decades ago in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He says another brick from that Indiana plant is also at the South Carolina assembly plant. The brick is part of Scout’s history, which Keogh says the company won’t repeat.

“Two things, we will connect to the past, we will remember what was done,” says Keogh. The second thing is, never again. Never again will America let its icons go away, never again will America let other people make our things.”

Scout’s investing $2 billion in its Blythewood plant and expects to begin production near the end of 2027. The plant will eventually employ as many as 4,000 workers and produce up to 200,000 vehicles annually. Scout’s about four years away from that point, says Keogh.

Keogh arrived at the celebratory event on Wednesday in a 1977 Scout II on loan to the state and driven by Gov. Josh Stein. “I, for one, am excited to see some bad boy SUVs and trucks on North Carolina’s highway,” the governor told Keogh.

Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley’s history with the Scout brand goes back even further. His family purchased an International Harvester dealership in the early 1950s in Williamston, and Lilley International sold the Scout brand for years. He says his first ride in a Scout vehicle came when he returned to his home from the hospital after being born.

While Charlotte has a string of successes in recruiting financial and other office jobs to the area, Lilley believes the Scout project will be the start of something bigger because of the industry.

“This is different,” he says, “because of the infusion of talent they are going to need to bring in to do this work.”

Scout’s business model is to sell its vehicles directly to consumers without dealerships. Both Stein and Lilley say the state has a preference for Scout using the dealership model, but each added that would be a decision for the General Assembly to work out.

Scout will lease about 300,000 square feet of office space from Charlotte development firm Crosland Southeast, which broke ground on its Commonwealth development in 2021 in partnership with Nuveen Real Estate. Cole Manufacturing made seed planters at the site starting in 1911 until it ceased operations in the early 1980s, and Scout will use a refurbished part of the former 12-acre manufacturing site for its offices.

Scout will occupy a total of three buildings in the mixed-use development. Its main building, a seven-story, 145,000-square-foot structure, is new construction and includes about 15,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor, including a Warby Parker eyeglass store and a Five Guys burger restaurant on the corner. The seventh floor offers rooftop amenities for Scout and will not include office space, says Bobby Speir, a vice president at Crosland.

Creating office space in a neighborhood during a national pandemic required faith in the project, Speir says. “We’re getting paid now for the risk we took five years ago.

While the main building is ready for Scout to move in, the company still needs to do some work before that happens, Keogh says. He says the company already has personnel working in the city and will move into its headquarters soon.

The state of North Carolina will give Scout about $51 million in incentives over a 12-year period if the company hits investment and job creation targets. Mecklenburg County and the city of Charlotte will add another $12.8 million and almost $7.3 million, respectively, for an additional $20 million.

Scout considered other sites in South Carolina and northern Virginia, where it already had offices, for its headquarters. The company chose Charlotte because of its available workforce, proximity to higher education, the ability to be near its factory, cost of doing business and international airport, among other factors.

“Those are powerful things,” Keogh says, “but, of course, at the end of the day, it needs to be a home. And a home is a place where you need to live, it’s a place where you need to speak to your kids and to raise them, and speak to your wife.”