The Ford Maverick is actually a lot smaller than the Ranger

Friday, 13 August 2021

Meet the Maverick - the half-tonne (well, 680kg) ute we deserve to get here.

The Ford Maverick small ute isn’t quite on sale yet but people have still been spotting them out and about. Someone even managed to spy one alongside a Ranger and F-150, which shows just how small the Maverick really is. And how perfect it would be for the New Zealand market.

Uploaded to Maverick Truck Club, the images make the Maverick look like a kids toy. We know that American trucks and even locally sold utes are getting bigger and bigger, but it’s still pretty wild to see just how much smaller the Maverick is.

The Maverick measures 5072mm long and 1727mm high, putting it 282mm shorter and 61mm lower than the Ranger. It only comes as a double-cab with a 1382mm tray capable of hauling a payload of 680kg, but towing is also significantly down, with the base hybrid version of the small ute only being able to pull 907kg, which would limit its appeal here. An optional towing pack and the larger turbo engine with an AWD drivetrain doubles this, but it is still well down on the Ranger’s 3,500kg maximum.

The Maverick is in the middle. Shows how big the Ranger and F-150 are, doesn’t it?

Interestingly, despite the exterior size deficit, the Maverick actually has more interior space than the Ranger. It has more effective headroom in both rows, better legroom and hip room in the rear, and more passenger volume overall.

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It doesn’t look as small here. Weirdly, it has more interior space than the Ranger... probably because it’s based on a car.

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Side by side, the Ranger almost looks old.

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Obviously, the Ranger is better as a commercial vehicle, with more cargo volume in the tray and more towing capacity.

While American truck fans aren’t quite ready to accept the Maverick as a ‘real’ truck, you could argue it’s a ‘proper’ ute in the traditional sense.

While the Ranger and its kind are ladder chassis-based pickups, the Maverick rides on the same monocoque platform as the Ford Escape, Bronco Sport and, you guessed it, the Focus, making it a traditionally car-based ‘ute’ of the kind pioneered in Australia by Ford in 1934.

You can also clearly see the evolution of Ford’s design language. The Ranger is starting to show its age, although you wouldn’t call it ugly, with the Maverick continuing the F-150’s squared face and upright grille. There’s a good chance this look will carry over to the next-gen Ranger too, which is due to debut soon.

Mention the next Ranger, it is almost certainly going to have a hybrid option, like the Maverick. Rumour has it, the powertrain will combine a turbocharged 2.3-litre petrol four-cylinder with a single electric motor to generate 270kW and 680Nm of torque. That’s well up on the current Ranger Raptor’s output of 157kW/500Nm from its twin-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine.

Meanwhile, the Mav’s version uses a 2.5-litre hybrid engine by default, making a combined 142kW.

Unfortunately, while we hear that customer enquiry is very strong locally, Ford US is remaining tight-lipped about the possibility of a RHD version of the Maverick. Given the Bronco is a hard no, it’s not looking too good, but we can still hope.