5 things to know about the 2022 Ford Maverick

On Jul 26, 2021

The 2022 Ford Maverick small pickup truck made its first public appearance at the Chicago Auto Show last week. The Maverick appeared to confirm its bona fides as a small pickup truck, and not just a compact crossover with a bed or a puny pickup from the 1980s and ’90s.

We won’t know how the Maverick and its standard hybrid powertrain acts on the road for a couple more months, but here are five things about the Maverick that caught our attention on the show floor.

Size matters

The most reassuring impression of the 2022 Ford Maverick is that it looks like a truck. Seems obvious, but compared to the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz “sport adventure vehicle” or the two-door 1990 Ford Ranger, the Maverick could have had as many sizes as the 7-11 soda fountain. Standard as a four-door crew cab, the Maverick’s square corners, vertical ends, C-shaped headlights, high grille bar, round wheel arches, and fender badges all derive from the F-150.

2022 Ford Maverick

In exterior dimensions, it more closely resembles the current Ranger than the Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz is based on the Hyundai Tucson compact crossover, and the Maverick shares a platform with the Ford Escape and Ford Bronco Sport compact crossovers. It’s about two inches shorter in height than the Ranger but has 8.6 inches of ground clearance with all-wheel drive. The 54-inch bed is 7.0 inches shorter than the current Ranger, and overall length is nearly one foot shorter, yet the 36.9 inches of rear leg room beats the Ranger crew cab’s rear leg room by 2.4 inches.

Fits four large adults

The crossover platform benefits the crew cab’s comfort and space. Five seat belts make a promise the Maverick shouldn’t keep. Four adults fit much better, but with pickup trucks blending into family vehicles, the Maverick can fit three kids in back for a weekend getaway. A 6-foot-6 passenger fit behind a 6-foot-4 driver during our demo, but the rear passenger had to engage in some major manspreading. It’s roomier than the Escape and much roomier than the Bronco Sport, and that may be by design.

This is 6’6″ me sitting in the back seat of the new 2022 @Ford Maverick compact pickup behind a 6’5″ Ford rep in the front seat. Headroom is great, legroom is tight but livable. #FordMaverick #CAS2021 @ChiAutoShow @cgautomotive pic.twitter.com/PpDsbtPSyL
— Damon Bell Likes Cars (@DamonRBell) July 14, 2021

“The target customer for Maverick is largely a lot of customers that have had to compromise in the vehicles they’re buying today,” Trevor Scott, Ford marketing manager, said in an interview with The Car Connection. “[Maverick] is an opportunity to bring new customers into the showroom that wouldn’t have otherwise looked at a truck.”

Truckiness

Ford drops the Escape’s powertrains into the Maverick, but the bed and design give it more versatility and capability than a compact crossover. The standard 2.5-liter inline-4 hybrid powertrain makes 191 hp and 155 lb-ft of torque, and the Maverick has 1,500 pounds of payload and a tow rating of up to 2,000 pounds. The uprated 250-hp 2.0-liter turbo-4 makes 277 lb-ft of torque. Front-wheel drive comes standard, and all-wheel drive is only available with the turbo-4 in a configuration that can tow up to 4,000 lb.

2022 Ford Maverick

The 4.5-foot bed features a tailgate that can be lowered and locked at various positions to haul 4×8 sheets of plywood without a bed extender, or it can fit at least two bikes with the front wheels removed. The tailgate can hold up to 400 pounds. The bed features dual covered bins, 10 tie downs to secure things, bed lighting, and a 110-volt AV outlet.

Clever packaging

The four doors of the crew cab feature split arm rests so the door pockets can hold 1.0-liter water bottles. The rear seats flip up for storage like a proper truck. Ford says a bike could fit back there with the front wheel removed. The front follows the design of the Bronco Sport, with storage nooks above and to the side of the standard 8.0-inch touchscreen, as well as deep console storage and a storage tray under the center stack.

2022 Ford Maverick

Most affordable hybrid in the Ford family

With a starting price of $21,940 including destination, the Maverick is Ford’s most affordable electrified vehicle. But it plays a much bigger role in Ford’s lineup than just being an entry-level truck or a versatile antidote to a crossover.

“Hybrids in general are a great stair step toward full battery electric vehicles,” Scott explained. “In the longer term the Maverick’s standard hybrid serves us well by bringing customers into the Ford family, getting them used to the strong fuel efficiency of the hybrid (EPA-estimated 37 mpg combined), and then when they get to the end of their trade cycle, it certainly gives them the optionality of looking at the battery electric vehicles that we’ll have on the showroom at that time.”