Ford created a shock smash hit when it launched the Maverick in 2021. This compact pickup, constructed on structure shared with the Escape and Bronco Sport crossover SUVs, provided truck functionality in a fuel-efficient, sensibly sized bundle. Now, Ford has launched updates for the 2025 mannequin 12 months that make the Maverick much more interesting.
At the start: Prospects will lastly have the ability to order the Maverick with the thrifty hybrid engine and all-wheel drive. Beforehand, Ford restricted the hybrid powertrain to front-wheel-drive fashions. This maximized gasoline effectivity, incomes stellar EPA estimates of 42 metropolis miles per gallon, 33 freeway, and 37 mixed. However this choice restricted the mannequin’s attraction: Consumers who needed all-weather functionality or wanted to tow greater than the hybrid’s 1,500-pound most needed to improve to the two.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine, rated at 22 metropolis mpg, 29 freeway, and 25 mixed when paired with all-wheel drive.
“Hybrid all-wheel drive was by far the highest request from clients,” Daybreak McKenzie, Ford Truck communications supervisor, informed WIRED by way of e mail. McKenzie defined that within the preliminary rollout, the hybrid mannequin was restricted to front-wheel drive to maximise affordability—certainly, Ford promised a base price of $19,995 when the Maverick was launched for the 2022 mannequin 12 months, although for 2024 the most affordable Maverick starts at $23,920, with the hybrid engine at present a $1,500 choice. Ford offered more than 94,000 Mavericks in 2023, over half of which had been hybrids.
PHOTOGRAPHY: FORD PRESS
For 2025, the Ford Maverick is available in a kaleidoscope of flavors. The bottom mannequin Maverick is a front-wheel-drive hybrid, rated at as much as 42 mpg. Including elective all-wheel drive is anticipated to drop the gasoline economic system barely, to a still-respectable 40 metropolis mpg. (Official EPA scores haven’t but been launched.) An elective towing bundle, now out there on hybrid Mavericks, permits trailers as much as 4,000 kilos. If the hybrid’s 191 horsepower and 155 foot-pounds of torque aren’t sufficient, the 238-hp, 275-foot-pound EcoBoost non-hybrid turbo four-cylinder continues to be out there on all fashions.
Hybrid Pickups Choose Up
Hybrid pickup vehicles are sort of having a second. Ford launched the hybrid F-150 PowerBoost within the 2021 mannequin 12 months. Toyota launched an optional hybrid drivetrain to the full-size Tundra pickup truck for 2022, and later this 12 months Ram will add a plug-in-hybrid to its light-duty truck. (Normal Motors doesn’t at present supply a hybrid model of the Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra, although rumors indicate the automaker is scrambling so as to add a plug-in variant.)
By hybridizing their pickup vehicles, automakers appear to be spreading their bets. Total, electrical automobile gross sales are still climbing in the US, however once-skyrocketing year-over-year will increase are beginning to degree out. Within the pickup truck world, EVs are nonetheless a tiny area of interest. Ford is thrilled to level out that the all-electric F-150 Lightning is the best-selling full-size electric pickup truck in the US, with 2023 gross sales up 55 p.c in comparison with 2022. However the Lightning is vastly overshadowed by its personal inside combustion siblings: Ford offered more than 750,000 F-series pickup trucks in 2023, however solely barely greater than 3 p.c of them had been all-electric.
A number of elements are at play. All-electric, full-size vehicles are drastically costlier than their inside combustion counterparts. The 2024 F-150 Lightning starts at almost $63,000, in comparison with $37,000 for a gasoline-burning mannequin; the base-model Chevy Silverado EV starts at roughly $75,000. The Rivian R1T starts at $70,000, and Tesla‘s promised $60,000 Cybertruck has just been canceled, which means you now cannot purchase one for a lot lower than $100,000.
