The 2022 Ford Maverick: Up close and personal with Ford’s new full-hybrid pickup truck HD

The good folks over at Ford have invited us out to Detroit to take a look at their brand-new hybrid pick-up truck offering: The 2022 Ford Maverick. Now, Ford says the Maverick is the first standard full-hybrid pickup truck in America, and the company is calling this “the truck for people who never knew they wanted a truck,” and as I go through the features, I think that is going to start making a lot of sense or ringing true for a lot of people. For starters, the Maverick comes standard as a five-passenger, four-door pickup, but that full-hybrid powertrain offers a projected EPA-estimated rating of 40 miles per gallon in the city, as well as 500 miles of range on a single tank of gas. When I got to the motor city, Ford had two models on display for me to get up close and personal with: its kind of middle-end XLT model and its high-end Lariat model. And, Ford’s Maverick and Ranger marketing manager, Trevor Scott, was right there with me for me to pepper with all sorts of questions. Trevor told me that Ford’s primary target customer for the Maverick is one who is coming out of owning a sedan or maybe a small utility vehicle, and you can really see that reflected in the price tag, which comes in at just under $20,000 for the base model. But, take a closer look, and Trevor gets more specific with how Ford hopes to capture that customer. This is also why Ford went the hybrid route with the Maverick rather than fully electric, like with the company’s F-150 Lightning. Fully electric would drive up the price, and from Ford’s point of view, affordability is really sort of paramount for this target audience they have for the Maverick. So, in addition to that 40 MPG in the city and up to 500 miles of range on a single tank, Ford says the Maverick’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid powertrain is going to deliver 191 horsepower when combined with the electric motor, and 155 lb.-ft. of torque mated to a continuously variable transmission driving the front wheels. This hybrid truck is also capable of towing up to 2,000 lbs. The Maverick is also being released with an optional 2-liter EcoBoost gas engine for those customers that need a bit more power. So, the gas engine is going to boost the Maverick’s output to 250 horsepower and 277 lb.-ft. of torque with an eight-speed automatic transmission and standard front-wheel drive or available all-wheel drive. From here, drivers can pair this truck with the optional 4K Tow Package, which will double conventional towing capability to 4,000 lbs. I asked about service intervals, and Ford says it’s actually going to be about the same in principle for the gas and hybrid variants, but the hybrid vehicle should achieve longer distances between oil changes. The brake pads are also expected to last longer on the hybrid thanks to regenerative braking. The bed itself is only 4-and-a-half feet long, but you can get a lot more out of it by extending that to six feet of space if you take advantage of the multi-position tailga