Jay Leno drives Scout Hybrid Harvester - Towing Capacity, Gas Fuel Tank Capacity, More Specs Revealed

[rfk]

Has Scout not received our demands for a compact vehicle that carries 26 people, comfortably fits 99 percentile Americans, has cargo capacity to move an entire 2 bedroom apartment in one trip and tow 196,000 pounds simultaneously? Oh, it also needs to be capable of winning King of the Hammers and run on spring water.

Personally, unless there is an organic hydroponic strawberry garden under the rear seat, I'm cancelling my reservation.

• Unibody counterpart w/ on-road bias for the vast majority that will never go off-road or tow.
• Amber turn signals because all-red looks trashy.
• Bulletproof plaid seats for coolness.
• Disconnect mode for steering wheel so you can rotate it back-and-forth yet nothing happens. Classic retro feature.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Yes, this.
BEV = 350 miles
EREV = 150 miles EV mode, w/ Harvester adds 350 to range = 500 total.
YMMV.

 

[rfk]

 

[clipperqb]

Did Jay ask at least twice if he just wanted to run the vehicle on gas and no electric he was told absolutely?

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

I think that Pre production, demonstrator Scout was put together with Popsicles sticks, kindergarten flour paste and paper mâché.

 

[endlessambition]

I really thought this video shoot was not flattering nor strategic on many levels.
1. Jay Leno is much much older than the target market for this vehicle. It was obvious Jay was meandering around & didn’t always quite get what the CEO was saying.
2. The CEO felt a little awkward IMO as well. Always trying hard to reaffirm how awesome the car is, or why it’s such a great thing. It just felt very forced, and unnatural. His episode w Motor Trend was much better.
3. Yes, it’s a prototype vehicle, but if it sounds like that, there isn’t any way, I am letting anybody drive that and post that video for the whole world to see. Really off putting IMO.
4. Driving this thing 15 mph around an airport for 15 minutes…. Just not sure what the point was. That thing was not ready for prime time.

I’m more excited about my BEV preorder than ever though. Yes, I plan on towing. But part of the fun in my mind is figuring out how to make it work.

 

[WD.]

Did Jay ask at least twice if he just wanted to run the vehicle on gas and no electric he was told absolutely?

Basically, but Scott also made sure to explain that even when running on gas your drive train is still electric and the gas engine is in no way directly attached to the wheels. My takeaway was that using the harvester you can select when you want it to kick in and from this video and others I've seen it looks like the default level it kicks on is once the battery depletes to 50% but is changeable to whatever you want. So if you wanted to run on just gas, like Jay asked, you could set it to kick on at 100% charge (or whatever battery level as long as it's at or above the current battery level) and the harvester would be able to maintain that current battery level up to about 70mph. Above that speed the battery level would start dropping because the engine output alone won't be enough to sustain its current state. Obviously that's all still speculative and I'm sure that 70mph Scott gave was just a conservative rough ballpark until they have a full production ready vehicle and can do some real life testing to get official numbers. I'm also guessing that with 70mph being the upper end the harvester can sustain on its own, that if you did some highway driving and the battery level dropped some, once you slowed down below 70 and did some slower city driving I would assume it should be able to recharge that battery level. That last part is more speculative and the engine may just idle down instead at a lower load and not actively charge the battery for better fuel efficiency or it could wait to idle down once it got back to the desired charge level. Still too early to know but I would guess those are some options Scout is currently weighing out and playing around with in the design.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

I expect to reset all information I've gathered when actual factory produced vehicles hit the street.

VW is notorious for screwball EV software and judging on merits alone, the Rivian synergy is a HUGE step forward for now.

 

[Timmdodge60]

Basically, but Scott also made sure to explain that even when running on gas your drive train is still electric and the gas engine is in no way directly attached to the wheels. My takeaway was that using the harvester you can select when you want it to kick in and from this video and others I've seen it looks like the default level it kicks on is once the battery depletes to 50% but is changeable to whatever you want. So if you wanted to run on just gas, like Jay asked, you could set it to kick on at 100% charge (or whatever battery level as long as it's at or above the current battery level) and the harvester would be able to maintain that current battery level up to about 70mph. Above that speed the battery level would start dropping because the engine output alone won't be enough to sustain its current state. Obviously that's all still speculative and I'm sure that 70mph Scott gave was just a conservative rough ballpark until they have a full production ready vehicle and can do some real life testing to get official numbers. I'm also guessing that with 70mph being the upper end the harvester can sustain on its own, that if you did some highway driving and the battery level dropped some, once you slowed down below 70 and did some slower city driving I would assume it should be able to recharge that battery level. That last part is more speculative and the engine may just idle down instead at a lower load and not actively charge the battery for better fuel efficiency or it could wait to idle down once it got back to the desired charge level. Still too early to know but I would guess those are some options Scout is currently weighing out and playing around with in the design.

If the Harvester engine default setting is at 50% battery level, does that mean the theoretical range would be 300 miles if the Harvester is set to not turn on and charge the battery while moving? Of course this means you would be stopped after 300 miles while charging the battery because the Harvester generator would not have the capacity to recover the depleted battery while moving.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Aren't there to several different proportional or % default settings? I thought it was mentioned someplace.

 

[Squatch45]

So Scott, does it have 1000 ft/lbs or torque?










In the future Scott., "market" less when talking to personalities like Jay and just enjoy the ride more. Jay is a professional and kept a straight face, but I could feel his urgency to roll his eyes at you every time you repeated a cheesy marketing slogan.

Anyway, if you could please add "Shawnee Scout" as a trim package option, I'd appreciate it.

 

[WD.]

If the Harvester engine default setting is at 50% battery level, does that mean the theoretical range would be 300 miles if the Harvester is set to not turn on and charge the battery while moving? Of course this means you would be stopped after 300 miles while charging the battery because the Harvester generator would not have the capacity to recover the depleted battery while moving.

Unfortunately I don't think that's the case. The 150 mile range on the battery is pure EV if you were to set it to EV only mode. I forget offhand what the three modes are called specifically (I know Scott talks about it on this video and I've seen it in some of the videos from CES as well) but there's an EV only mode, a hybrid mode and a max output/tow mode. In the EV only mode the harvester never kicks in but in a hybrid mode you can select what battery level you want it to kick on at. So on the hybrid mode at a default 50% threshold in theory you would run for about 75 miles on pure EV and then the harvester would kick on and you'd get about 350 miles or so worth of electricity from the harvester before it runs out of gas and shuts off and then you have the last 75 miles of just EV only to go off unless you stop for more gas or top off your charge. It may not work exactly like that but probably somewhere along those lines.

 

[5ohbrad]

As a previous owner of a Lightning, I am totally on board for electric and the Harvester seems un-necessarily complicated for "peace of mind." It's not surprising at all that hanging a small four cylinder gas engine over the back axle will dramatically decrease towing performance. Couple all of that with the always present sound in the video? It will be interesting to see how many Harvester reservations convert to orders. Meanwhile, if you are realistic about how most of us use a vehicle, the electric does everything better silently. The 150 mile range quoted in the video was for the Harvester in "electric only" mode, not for the BEV.

 

[jesemd]

Yes, this.
BEV = 350 miles
EREV = 150 miles EV mode, w/ Harvester adds 350 to range = 500 total.
YMMV.

Anyone thinking that they are going to tow 10k for 350 miles with the EV should watch some reviews of towing with current EV pickups...

 

[Lucky Logan]

As a previous owner of a Lightning, I am totally on board for electric and the Harvester seems un-necessarily complicated for "peace of mind." It's not surprising at all that hanging a small four cylinder gas engine over the back axle will dramatically decrease towing performance. Couple all of that with the always present sound in the video? It will be interesting to see how many Harvester reservations convert to orders. Meanwhile, if you are realistic about how most of us use a vehicle, the electric does everything better silently. The 150 mile range quoted in the video was for the Harvester in "electric only" mode, not for the BEV.

What'll also be interesting to see is once production specs are announced if towing capacity remains 5000 lbs, if more people will cancel their reservation altogether or switch over to BEV full-electric model.