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With their latest crony capitalist carveout exposed, Scout Motors – a subsidiary of über-woke Volkswagen – went on the public relations offensive in South Carolina this week in the hopes of building legislative support for its latest government handout.
That’s right… a company which has already received $1.3 billion from Palmetto State taxpayers to build an electric vehicle plant in Blythewood, S.C. (at the worst possible time to enter the EV market) is back at the S.C. State House with its hand out looking for more preferential treatment.
This time, Scout wants a special exemption that would further distort the market in its favor… because apparently the $1.3 billion market-distorting subsidy it received less than two years ago wasn’t enough.
“Dear Representative XXXXX,” Scout’s auto-generated missive to South Carolina lawmakers began… offering a full-throated endorsement of crony capitalist legislation which would allow electric vehicle companies (but only those with manufacturing facilities in South Carolina) to sell new cars directly to consumers.

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“Scout Motors is bringing $2 billion of investment and thousands of jobs to Blythewood,” the email continued. “Their vision includes offering direct-to-consumer sales to make buying and servicing a car more affordable, transparent, and efficient. But current laws stand in the way.”
To be clear: Scout doesn’t want other car owners to have access to this “affordable, transparent and efficient” vehicular utopia. That would defeat the purpose of the carveout… which exists for the sole purpose of giving one company yet another undeserved leg-up on its competitors.
As we noted in our original coverage, the company’s bill – H. 3777 – would allow direct sales only for companies which “own and operate a manufacturing factory or assembly plant” in the Palmetto State, companies which “manufacture or assembles vehicles propelled wholly or in part by an electric motor” and companies which have “no franchised dealers in this state in the ten-year period before this item became effective.”
Astoundingly, Scout claims this isn’t a carveout…
After we exposed this scam last week, representatives of the company pushed back hard against us – claiming “the speaker’s bill” was actually available to all electric vehicle manufacturers whether they had a manufacturing facility in South Carolina or not.
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RELATED | EV CARVEOUT RAISES RED FLAGS
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Wait… “the speaker’s bill?”
Last time we checked, S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith was not sponsoring this particular crony capitalist abomination.
Beyond that, the statute the legislation intends to modify plainly referred to facilities “in this state” or established “in this state” – which directly contravenes Scout’s insistence that all electric vehicle manufacturers would be eligible for the carveout.
Even if they were, this remains a massive market distortion aimed at artificially lowering the sticker price of one type of vehicle at the expense of all the others. As of last year, only 20,300 of South Carolina’s 3.5 million registered vehicles were fully electric or plug-in hybrids. Scout clearly needs this law to pass if it hopes to make a dent in that number – just like it needs the charging infrastructure to support these EVs to be subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of tens of millions of dollars annually.
Enough…
President Donald Trump – who took office last week – has already taken steps to shut down the preferential treatment being given to the EV industry (and further executive orders could take aim at additional subsidies). South Carolina should follow his lead. Not only that, lawmakers need to ensure Scout Motors is held accountable for every penny of (and every promise associated with) the massive amount of taxpayer money the company has been gifted.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
Send them packing. We do not need them.
The dealer lobby is establishment crony capitalism with special rules. Change the law so all manufacturers can sell direct to consumers.