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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina “Republican” lawmakers awarded crony capitalist carmaker Scout Motors – a subsidiary of über-woke Volkswagen – a whopping $1.3 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives two years ago (despite the company receiving precisely zero credible offers from other states).
The boondoggle came at the absolute worst time for the electric vehicle market, although Scout still envisions a massive manufacturing facility near Blythewood, S.C. which it insists will one day employ as many as 4,600 people.
Will these lofty projections come to pass? Probably not… as we noted in a recent assessment.
This week, Scout – which sought additional taxpayer largesse from Palmetto State politicians earlier this year – made another big “economic development” reveal. Only this time, the company stiffed South Carolina in favor of its neighbor to the north.
On Wednesday (November 12, 2025), Scout announced its intention to locate its new corporate headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal will bring 1,200 high-paying, corporate jobs to the Queen City – along with a capital investment of approximately $200 million. The average expected minimum wage of these positions – which are scheduled to come online between 2026 and 2030 – is a whopping $172,878.
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North Carolina taxpayers will have to shell out at least $46.5 million worth of corporate welfare in connection with the deal – which is clearly intended to send a message to South Carolina leaders.
“Charlotte beat out sites in South Carolina and Virginia,” reporters for The Charlotte Observer noted, referring to the Scout corporate headquarters as “one of the biggest job creation announcements in Charlotte over the past decade.”
Scout’s rebuke of South Carolina for its corporate headquarters is a humiliation for status quo S.C. governor Henry McMaster, who has been the company’s biggest cheerleader. Earlier this year, McMaster championed legislation which would have given the EV maker an undeserved leg-up on its competitors by ensconcing it as the only vehicle manufacturer permitted to bypass the Palmetto State’s established dealer marketplace.
This still-pending bill – H. 3777 – would allow direct auto sales in South Carolina for companies which “own and operate a manufacturing factory or assembly plant” in the Palmetto State, companies which “manufacture or assemble 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.”
In other words, just Scout.
To their credit, lawmakers refused to advance this bill – prompting McMaster to seek an end-around via the federal courts.
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RELATED | DESPERATION TIME
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Sources close to McMaster’s administration are blaming lawmakers for failing to approve the company’s latest demands – including $10 million in one-time funding for “EV training” at South Carolina’s technical college system and nearly $100 million in annual funding for EV industry scholarships from the S.C. Education Lottery.
“Had they anted up, Scout would have come,” a source familiar with the negotiations told FITSNews.
Wait… what?
“Had they anted up?”
Unbelievable… Scout got an insanely (and we mean insanely) good deal from South Carolina lawmakers two years ago, one no government in its right mind should have ever offered up based on prevailing market conditions. In fact, an estimated $400 million of that $1.3 billion boondoggle – which was drafted and rushed through the legislature in just twelve days – was cold, hard cash.
And this is how the company repays the Palmetto State?
“When we gave Scout $1.3 billion to make things in South Carolina, why did we not treat it like a business contract?” one veteran economic development expert told us. “How the hell did we let them go put 1,200 professional jobs in Charlotte?”
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we continue to track the progress of the Scout deal, which is looking more and more like previous failed boondoggles with each passing day.
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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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19 comments
Scout just ‘took the money and ran’…. to Charlotte! We just got a GIANT middle-finger salute, my friends.
Scout is a complete Failure! VW is already in big financial trouble in Germany. They can’t sell EV’s and VW is going Bankrupt. Scout plant will never open to sell EV’s. Likely, VW will instead try and sell ICE Jeep Clones. Scout is competing against Jeep, Toyota and Ford. It has no chance of success. Jeep has already stopped trying to sell Jeep EV’s. Nobody is buying off road EV’s in enough quantities to even keep Jeep in business. Jeep has all of its EV’s in multiple recalls for fires, and many other problems. VW is on the middle of a disaster. The Scout Plant will never be what VW promised. SC should cut all funds to VW now, and make them finish the plant themselves. Or, SC should FORECLOSE on the entire facility and offer it to another manufacturer. Who is not a lying crook. Throwing good money after bad is just robbing SC Taxpayers. People in the legislature supporting this ripoff, will end up in jail.
Meanwhile, Ford is pausing (in preparation for cancelling) the Ford Lightning and GM is preparing for their EV sales to tank.
It will end up another mattress factory like Mack truck facility
No one making $172k a year wants to send their kids to the atrocious Richland 2 public schools. Charlotte can attract top talent and VW knows that. No one is moving to Northeast Columbia.
You better fact check and stop yapping abt your opinion on columbia. Huge pool of talent through the numerous universities and tech schools in the area. The northeast region of the city is one of the fastest growing areas of the state. Charlotte does have more prestige but don’t make it seems as if they couldn’t pull this off.
The Colonel still takes taxis everywhere he goes cause uber is new fangled.
The Colonel drives himself in a small AWD SUV that gets 35+ mpg and goes anywhere he wants to go in it, that refuels in 5 minutes and gets 400+ miles to the tank…
=
From someone who has worked in Columbia and Charlotte for years, I can assure you that Richland 2 Public Schools are a whole lot better than Mecklenburg County Schools. Trump is about to send ICE and Homeland Security into Charlotte because of the terrible crime rates also. “This is just another case of jumping on the Charlotte bandwagon”…..which is more fools gold than real gold. The taxes in Mecklenburg County are outrageous. Most people buying houses are buying across the South Carolina state line into York County or Lancaster County and putting their kids into much better school districts also.
Blythewood is being destroyed. No infrastructure for what’s coming. No restaurants, no shopping, etc. and now this kick in the pants. So what’s McMaster going to do for us now?
I likely could believe dollar amounts of the political kickback circle jerk going on but BMW worked out over the past few decades. Scout has a choice of power trains available and some suggests a powerful hybrid gas/electric may be coming. What the hell else is going on in Blythwood?
JUST ANOTHER SCAM ? ? ?
Another scandal in Columbia and the stench coming from both chambers and the Governors mansion is growing by the day !!!! Scout motors deal ranks up there with the failed Summerville nuclear in its negative impact on state rsidents and taxpayers ! This matter demands immediate investigation !
No middle class family will chose Coöumbia to live since the schools are subpar, and the chances that after a long week on the road your flight will be cancelled bc of mechanical failure on the last leg will be cancelled. And for the universities : the students might be ‚first generation but don’t have either business or engineering skills Scout needs. Maybe BYD will buy the manufacturing sitebut they also need an airport with international connections. Focus on pulled pork and bbq sauces .
When people vote they are giving power of attorney to some clown in a suit to do what he/she/they/them wants to do no matter if the voter agrees or not. Suck it up people! You voted for these fucks! Does not matter if you are a red team member or a blue team member if you voted you are responsible for the Scout Motors disaster and deserve getting screwed.
Everyone who voted for Scout should be given a one way ticket to Gitmo for a short vacation at a secure facility where they can get a bed and three square meals every day.
McMaster should be voted out.
I called it. VW lied to the US govt and the EPA about their emissions data for years. Pulling one over on ole dumbass Henry and good ole boy Murrell was a piece of cake. Scout didn’t even say thank you for the 400 million tax payer dollars in cash the idiot statehouse handed over. If this whole deal doesn’t scream how corrupt our statehouse is nothing else will
1200 well paying jobs to Charlotte. What a slap in the face of our state, after Scout has raped the land in Blythewood, enduring major fines in the process! McMaster is a lame duck Governor, so no repercussions for him, but we need to look at what legislators voted for this, as it seemed to be a done deal before it was even introduced. Think about how many roads could have been repaired with that money, how many roads could have been upgraded to handle the growth we are experiencing. All to build a plant for electric vehicles that no one wants. My understanding is that they have now decided to manufacture hybrid instead.
When people who don’t understand the technology what do you expect. Don’t bet on Dino technologies like the internal combustion engine engine or nuclear. In China CATL has advanced the battery technology so much that Europe and the US are now 20 years behind. As long as politicians and university presidents don’t listen to experts you will have more of these development failures. Shirt your Volkswagen snd BMW stocks.