Small pickups are like manual transmission cars: every car guy says he wants one, but then the sales numbers come around at the end of the year and — surprise, surprise — no one bought them. But with the new Bronco, Ford is making a bet on the stick shift, and now it’s confirmed that the company is making a wager on normal-sized trucks, too.
On Thursday, Ford confirmed that it’s adding a new compact pickup truck to its stable called the Maverick. While details are sparse at the moment — the automaker is officially unveiling the vehicle on Tuesday, June 8 — Autoblog writes that it will be smaller than the Ranger, which will make it Ford’s smallest pickup.
There are a number of reasons for Ford to downsize their truck offerings. For one, if you’ve been under the impression that pickups have been getting bigger and bigger to the point of insanity, you’re absolutely correct. The Maverick will balance out the growth spurt that has made consumer trucks hard to own for many, including those in the city who rely on street parking and those with older, smaller garages. On that note, according to a teaser video, the point here is diversification, opening up Ford’s already lucrative truck line to buyers who may not have considered a pickup before (young people, urbanites, people who buy vehicles based on their “fun factor”).
To help sell to those people, Ford has recruited not only actress Gabrielle Union, who will be showing off the truck on her Instagram and TikTok pages on launch day, but also the latter Gen Z-focused app itself. As the press release notes, “The Maverick will be Ford’s first vehicle to debut on its new U.S. TikTok channel.”
We don’t expect anything groundbreaking here besides the size. Our big question is: will Ford electrify the Maverick? After all, the impressive EV architecture in the recently announced Lightning would go even further in a smaller package.
But as a 2022 model, it looks like the Maverick will hit the streets before the Lightning.
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