The 2025 Ford Maverick Shows That Hybrid Pickup Trucks Are Going Mainstream Leave a comment

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, supplied truck functionality in a fuel-efficient, sensibly sized bundle. Now, Ford has launched updates for the 2025 mannequin yr that make the Maverick much more interesting.

At first: Clients 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 enchantment: Patrons 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, instructed WIRED through 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 yr, although for 2024 the most affordable Maverick starts at $23,920, with the hybrid engine presently a $1,500 choice. Ford bought more than 94,000 Mavericks in 2023, over half of which had been hybrids.

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 predicted 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 obtainable 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 obtainable on all fashions.

Hybrid Pickups Choose Up

Hybrid pickup vehicles are form of having a second. Ford launched the hybrid F-150 PowerBoost within the 2021 mannequin yr. Toyota launched an optional hybrid drivetrain to the full-size Tundra pickup truck for 2022, and later this yr Ram will add a plug-in-hybrid to its light-duty truck. (Normal Motors doesn’t presently provide 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 stage 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 america, with 2023 gross sales up 55 p.c in comparison with 2022. However the Lightning is vastly overshadowed by its personal inner combustion siblings: Ford bought more than 750,000 F-series pickup trucks in 2023, however solely barely greater than 3 p.c of them had been all-electric.

Just a few elements are at play. All-electric, full-size vehicles are drastically costlier than their inner 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, that means you now cannot purchase one for a lot lower than $100,000.