Ford Maverick Based Van Still Happening, Production Set For 2028

[Zestyg]

1 hour ago, ExplorerDude said:

Unfortunately I believe this program was canceled at the beginning of 2026.

Farley really needs to have articulated a coherent overall program and vision for Ford outside of the UEV. Thankfully that seems relatively coherent/long-view/stable, but everything on the ICE side is just paralyzed by changing their mind over and over. The product line is decently sculpted (I think its missing one out of two of the Escape/Edge) but because Farley just totally failed to plan it is guaranteed to be old for the next like 2 to 3 years, and medium/long-term reliant on UEV working. 
 

He has made it so UEV will make or break his tenure, but I don’t think it had to be that way.

[rmc523]

16 minutes ago, ExplorerDude said:

There is a van going to OHAP but it’s not the Maverick based van. This is new van is not electric either.
 

Let’s just say this new van isn’t as small as the Maverick based van would have been. Let’s say it will mirror the size of the reborn Ram Promaster City.

 

So a reborn Transit Connect, what we've been expecting all along?  Or I guess you're implying it might be slightly bigger...

[Texasota]

3 hours ago, Zestyg said:

We are really fighting for scraps here until someone gets a spy shot of the skunk truck around Dearborn aren’t we?

Skunk truck, what a great name for it!  🤣

[Sherminator98]

25 minutes ago, bzcat said:

There is no way Ford is going to setup a 2nd C2 plant in Ohio just to build this van after mothballing an existing C2 plant in Louisville 🤣

 

11 minutes ago, ExplorerDude said:

There is a van going to OHAP but it’s not the Maverick based van. This is new van is not electric either.
 

Let’s just say this new van isn’t as small as the Maverick based van would have been. Let’s say it will mirror the size of the reborn Ram Promaster City.

 

7 minutes ago, Zestyg said:

Farley really needs to have articulated a coherent overall program and vision for Ford outside of the UEV. Thankfully that seems relatively coherent/long-view/stable, but everything on the ICE side is just paralyzed by changing their mind over and over. The product line is decently sculpted (I think its missing one out of two of the Escape/Edge) but because Farley just totally failed to plan it is guaranteed to be old for the next like 2 to 3 years, and medium/long-term reliant on UEV working. 
 

He has made it so UEV will make or break his tenure, but I don’t think it had to be that way.

 

So using the information given to us:

Ram Promaster City:

 

129-inch wheelbase

210 inches long

75.7 inches wide minus the mirrors
76.7 inches tall

 

Transit Connect:

 

Overall Length: 190 inches
Wheelbase: 120.6 inches
Overall Width (without mirrors): 72.2 inches
Overall Height: 71.6 inches

 

Maverick:

Overall Length: 199.8 inches (200.6 in. for Tremor, 200.9 in. for Lobo)

Wheelbase: 121.1 inches

Body Width (without mirrors): 72.6 inches

 

So outside of the width, basing it on a Maverick doesn't look like it would be that hard to do if the Promaster City is going to be the target for the new Van. 

 

 

[rmc523]

3 hours ago, Zestyg said:

God dammit, I thought someone found something when this topic got bumped. We are really fighting for scraps here until someone gets a spy shot of the skunk truck around Dearborn aren’t we?

 

FWIW, Borg is claiming "The Skunk Truck is solidifying at least, they have body in whites now and people are seeing them in Dearborn."

 

 

 

He's also claiming this...

I can tell you Ford is pursuing a partnership with a certain BIG Chinese EV automaker on a 3-Row for the US, that's really the only interesting thing happening lately. So they are still trying to figure out what to do about electrified family haulers.
 

[Zestyg]

3 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Skunk truck, what a great name for it!  🤣

Careful I think I might have gotten it from BORG calling it that. 

[Zestyg]

1 minute ago, rmc523 said:

 

FWIW, Borg is claiming "The Skunk Truck is solidifying at least, they have body in whites now and people are seeing them in Dearborn."

 

 

 

He's also claiming this...

I can tell you Ford is pursuing a partnership with a certain BIG Chinese EV automaker on a 3-Row for the US, that's really the only interesting thing happening lately. So they are still trying to figure out what to do about electrified family haulers.
 

Yeah I saw his post on that. I gotta stop looking at that shithole of a forum just to read his posts, he’s getting moody because Farley doesn’t give a shit about Lincoln. I also take it that whoever he got his info from is no longer being told anything.

Edited April 7 by Zestyg

[Sherminator98]

37 minutes ago, bzcat said:

There is no way Ford is going to setup a 2nd C2 plant in Ohio just to build this van after mothballing an existing C2 plant in Louisville 🤣

 

Why not? OHAP has been building "odd ball excess" unibody production vehicles for years. There really isn't anything else that would fit into mold of what is being described by ExplorerDude and Ford said they would be building a van there-but who knows like everything else that might have changed. Whatever goes there (if it still happens) is going to be an oddball vehicle

 

They built the Nissan/Mercury minivan and the Escape and Mariner there for a period of time

[Sherminator98]

3 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

He's also claiming this...

I can tell you Ford is pursuing a partnership with a certain BIG Chinese EV automaker on a 3-Row for the US, that's really the only interesting thing happening lately. So they are still trying to figure out what to do about electrified family haulers.
 

 

Here is the issue-is there any actual demand for one? Given how EV's have fallen off a cliff sales wise across the board, there isn't going to be any genuine demand IMO till the price points are almost identical to ICE vehicles with the vast majority of car buying public. 

 

Plus Ford linking up or using an Chinese EV as vehicle is going to blow up in their face spectacularly IMO also. 

[DeluxeStang]

1 hour ago, BenKohnen said:

I've heard zero info on this, either "it's moving forward" or "it's dead, Jim". I do wonder if the whole Universal EV Platform rollout is the end of the Mav-Van, since they're already discussing vans on that platform.

That's my guess, it would just be a better vehicle. Lower cost of ownership and better reliability is a huge deal for commerical buyers. But from a packaging standpoint, you could almost do a form factor that's less like a conventional Transit and more like a VW ID buzz. Something where you could push the a-pillar all the way forward and maximize interior space. That's a more compelling product than a maverick cab with panel sides attached imo. 

[rmc523]

7 minutes ago, Zestyg said:

Yeah I saw his post on that. I gotta stop looking at that shithole of a forum just to read his posts, he’s getting moody because Farley doesn’t give a shit about Lincoln. I also take it that whoever he got his info from is no longer being told anything.

 

I've taken his posts with a grain of salt for a while now until they prove true (often not, but to be fair, that's to be expected with how Ford has changed plans like underwear lately).  But, it's still nice to get tidbits and thoughts from him for discussion purposes.

 

2 minutes ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

Here is the issue-is there any actual demand for one? Given how EV's have fallen off a cliff sales wise across the board, there isn't going to be any genuine demand IMO till the price points are almost identical to ICE vehicles with the vast majority of car buying public. 

 

Plus Ford linking up or using an Chinese EV as vehicle is going to blow up in their face spectacularly IMO also. 

 

Yeah, I don't understand that rumor/move at all.

[rmc523]

2 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

That's my guess, it would just be a better vehicle. Lower cost of ownership and better reliability is a huge deal for commerical buyers. But from a packaging standpoint, you could almost do a form factor that's less like a conventional Transit and more like a VW ID buzz. Something where you could push the a-pillar all the way forward and maximize interior space. That's a more compelling product than a maverick cab with panel sides attached imo. 

 

Yeah, Maverick's longer hood never made sense for a van, so at a certain point, it'd just be a C2-based van, not "Maverick-based".

[Zestyg]

Just now, Sherminator98 said:

 

Here is the issue-is there any actual demand for one? Given how EV's have fallen off a cliff sales wise across the board, there isn't going to be any genuine demand IMO till the price points are almost identical to ICE vehicles with the vast majority of car buying public. 

 

Plus Ford linking up or using an Chinese EV as vehicle is going to blow up in their face spectacularly IMO also. 

I think they should collaborate with a Chinese maker but I certainly hope they aren’t spending any money on a big 3-row  EV right now. Get UEV and make it to the next gen of Explorer/Expedition first, get them their hybrid/EREV powertrains, and then look into that dumb shit. 
 

especially in this unreliable political climate spending a lot of money on a three row EV with a Chinese manufacturer is just a guaranteed multi billion write down in a few years.

[Zestyg]

4 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

 

I've taken his posts with a grain of salt for a while now until they prove true (often not, but to be fair, that's to be expected with how Ford has changed plans like underwear lately).  But, it's still nice to get tidbits and thoughts from him for discussion purposes.

 

 

Oh, I agree it’s why I lurk. He just hasn’t had anything new to share since the Lincoln bronco which he’s been saying for a while now. 

Edited April 7 by Zestyg

[blazerdude20]

I hope the new van doesn’t have a left side sliding door. The TC lost a significant amount of usable space inside with that door. 

[DeluxeStang]

Agreed, sounds like it would have had the same packaging shortcomings of something like the Nissan titan based van with its massive hood. It was hard to say if it was maverick based, sharing some maverick body panels, or just c2 based with a lot of mechanical similarities with the maverick. 

 

They showed it at a dealer meeting, and those individuals made it sound like it was the former. If that was the case, killing it in favor of CE1 van was the right play. 

[DeluxeStang]

4 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

Here is the issue-is there any actual demand for one? Given how EV's have fallen off a cliff sales wise across the board, there isn't going to be any genuine demand IMO till the price points are almost identical to ICE vehicles with the vast majority of car buying public. 

Autos & Vehicles

 

 

Plus Ford linking up or using an Chinese EV as vehicle is going to blow up in their face spectacularly IMO also. 

There's no real demand for large, expensive EVs, so I don't know why Farley would bother bring a three row EV here if that rumor ended up being true. There are times where I wonder what the point of CE1 even was. 

 

Because Ford acts like it was meant to be the end all, be all for it's EVs. Yet they're also still trying to start all these partnerships using someone else's EV platform. VW, Renault, now this news of potential Chinese partnerships. Why not just use your own brand new, cost efficient, and flexible platform instead of trying to partner with everyone under the sun?

 

The only way this makes sense, is if Ford is dipping their toes in the water, minimizing future risk. Where to save money, they use someone else's platform to see if there's strong demand or not, and if there is, then they invest to develop future products for those segments using their own platform. 

 

I believe this is the case with Renault for instance. They'll use Renault's platforms to offer something comparable to an electric fiesta and focus. If it flops, their exposure is limited, if it's a smash hit, then they invest to develop those products on ce1. 

 

If that's the plan, it makes a lot of sense. If that's not the plan, I have no idea what they're doing. 

[akirby]

2 hours ago, blazerdude20 said:

I hope the new van doesn’t have a left side sliding door. The TC lost a significant amount of usable space inside with that door. 

I used one for a couple of weeks doing fiber internet installs on strike duty.  It was easy to access shelves and drawers from outside without crawling inside.

[DeluxeStang]

7 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

FWIW, Borg is claiming "The Skunk Truck is solidifying at least, they have body in whites now and people are seeing them in Dearborn."
 

Pretty much the only good news we have right now. With more and more individuals within the main Ford mother ship seeing the design, and prototypes running around, here's hoping we get a prototype or leaked photos in the near future. 

[jpd80]

Maverick was based on the Transit Connect branch of C2, why would you change the existing efficient design.

The answer is that you would just build a North American parts based Transit Connect or with a different name

[twintornados]

10 hours ago, jpd80 said:

...The answer is that you would just build a North American parts based Transit Connect or with a different name

 

We could call it Transit Econoline....

[Sherminator98]

10 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Maverick was based on the Transit Connect branch of C2, why would you change the existing efficient design.

The answer is that you would just build a North American parts based Transit Connect or with a different name

 

The closest thing Ford sells world wide to the Promaster City is the Transit Custom, which is currently a VW based platform, so going by that, it looks like this new van that is going to OHAP is going to be a new product that is based on the C2 

[rmc523]

51 minutes ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

The closest thing Ford sells world wide to the Promaster City is the Transit Custom, which is currently a VW based platform, so going by that, it looks like this new van that is going to OHAP is going to be a new product that is based on the C2 

 

Transit Custom isn't VW based, that's Transit Connect.

 

 

Ford makes Transit Custom and VW rebadges it as the Transporter.

VW makes the Caddy, which Ford rebadges as Transit Connect.

[twintornados]

21 hours ago, bzcat said:

There is no way Ford is going to setup a 2nd C2 plant in Ohio just to build this van after mothballing an existing C2 plant in Louisville 🤣

 

They didn't mothball it - they tore it out. Now, if they took the removed C2 production line and moved it to OHAP, that would be an interesting development. 

[BenKohnen]

22 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

That's my guess, it would just be a better vehicle. Lower cost of ownership and better reliability is a huge deal for commerical buyers. But from a packaging standpoint, you could almost do a form factor that's less like a conventional Transit and more like a VW ID buzz. Something where you could push the a-pillar all the way forward and maximize interior space. That's a more compelling product than a maverick cab with panel sides attached imo. 

The more I think about it, the more it does make sense to do a small van - ESPECIALLY a small commercial/cargo van - as a cab-forward EV. The rear floor can be lower. The nose can be shorter. The cargo area can be larger and more useful. And if they can put it out as a $35k vehicle with 200-ish miles of range with a load, that's a home run for what it's for.

 

This was my first look at the mentioned VW ID.Buzz at the 2024 Chicago Auto Show. I thought it was a great mix of modern and retro. In the background is the very first Type 1 "Beetle" imported to the US in 1949. Oddly, as chatty as the VW folks were, they really didn't want to talk about the 1940's. 🙃

Edited April 8 by BenKohnen