DETROIT – Ford Motor’s new Maverick truck will be the first pickup in The us with a normal fuel-electrical hybrid engine when it goes on sale this slide beginning at about $20,000.
The company unveiled the compact pickup Tuesday as the smallest car in its hugely profitable truck lineup, slotting down below the total-dimension Ford F-150 and midsize Ranger pickups. The Maverick is about three ft shorter in length and seven inches lower than an F-150, Ford mentioned.
Compact pickups are an untapped and unproven marketplace in the U.S. Ford’s expansion into the segment arrives as gross sales of vehicles have skyrocketed in modern a long time, with purchase thought surpassing that of autos previous 12 months, according to Cox Automotive.
2022 Ford Maverick hybrid (left) and 2.-liter EcoBoost Lariat 1
Ford
Expanding Ford’s truck enterprise has been a intention under CEO Jim Farley, who is restructuring the automaker’s functions to target on its strengths these types of as pickups.
The name Maverick is not new to Ford. It produced a two-doorway sedan with that title from 1969 to 1979. The enterprise also utilised the name Maverick in Australia, China and Europe for various vehicles.
New consumers
Ford expects the Maverick to attract new customers to the model as nicely as the extremely faithful pickup truck segment, in accordance to officials.
“Maverick worries the position quo and the stereotypes of what a pickup truck can be,” Todd Eckert, Ford truck group marketing manager, stated in a assertion. “We think it will be powerful to a whole lot of people today who hardly ever before regarded as a truck.”
Quite a few Ford officials all through a media briefing known as the Maverick a “truck for men and women who hardly ever understood they wanted a truck.”
The car is a normal 5-passenger, 4-door pickup not like other Ford vehicles these as the F-150 that start with two doors and only seat two or three men and women.
Ford mentioned the Maverick will arrive regular with a hybrid gas-electrical powertrain that is envisioned to have 500 miles of variety on a solitary tank of gasoline. The hybrid motor vehicle is anticipated to attain an EPA-estimated 40 mpg gasoline financial state in town driving, according to Ford. The enterprise declined to launch overall and freeway gas overall economy estimates.
Chris Mazur, chief engineer of the pickup, stated the 40 mpg metropolis was Ford’s “rallying cry” for the vehicle. He reported fuel financial system is a key consideration for smaller sized pickups.
“We are bringing it to gain,” he instructed CNBC. “It can be a white house car or truck heading into a new phase.”
Cox Automotive reviews cargo room is the major element – by a huge margin – for buyers who would consider a compact truck about a a lot more traditional SUV, followed by gas performance and price tag.
Analysts have mentioned the Maverick would have to have to be priced properly down below the Ford Ranger and other midsize pickups to be competitive in the U.S. current market. A two-door variation of the Ranger starts at about $25,000. A 4-doorway product starts at about $27,000, in accordance to Ford’s web site.
The Maverick will get started at $19,995, in accordance to Ford.
A combine of car and truck
Compared with Ford’s other pickups, the Maverick will be assembled by a system the automobile marketplace phone calls “unibody” construction. The procedure, which is how autos are produced, is in which the frame/human body of the motor vehicle are one particular. That compares to “overall body-on-frame” development for most pickups and some vans and SUVs, which combines the overall body and body of the vehicles towards the conclude of creation.
The most notable unibody pickup presently on the market place is the midsize Honda Ridgeline. These kinds of design normally makes it possible for for a smoother experience, nonetheless significantly less functionality than a common truck.
The lesser dimension of the Maverick will enable for a lot easier obtain to the vehicle’s mattress and cabin when compared with greater pickup trucks, Ford claimed.
The vehicle’s typical 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid powertrain is rated at 191 horsepower and 155 pound toes of torque. A 2.-liter gas engine rated at 250 horsepower and 277 pound ft of torque also will be out there.
The pickup is becoming produced at Ford’s Hermosillo plant in Mexico together with its new Ford Bronco Activity SUV. The autos share the identical foundation, also recognised as a system.
Unproven marketplace
Compact motor vehicles with pickup beds have occur and long gone a number of situations all over the American auto industry.
Most notably, the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino setting up in the 1950s and 1960s, and, extra just lately, the Subaru Baja from the 2000s. Hyundai is entering the tiny U.S. pickup marketplace with the Santa Cruz, a small SUV-like automobile that’s scheduled to go on sale this summer season.
2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz
Hyundai
Ford expects to differentiate the Maverick from former autos as very well as the Santa Cruz by earning it a additional standard truck. It’s a prepare identical to its not long ago unveiled electrical F-150 pickup truck.
“It can be unmistakably a Ford truck,” reported Heath Hilliard, Maverick imaginative exterior designer.
