And it has a BEV version too…

Fair enough.  Soon to be minus Corsair and Lightning.  I for one think starting with a truck for CE1 is a mistake, considering the loss of the rest of their CUVs and the trucks they currently have available.  Just because you have X number of vehicles doesn’t mean you actually have significant variety for the general public to buy.  

Well yes but it’s possible to take advantage of low series-high series parts. I’m thinking that instead of a The usual Ford + Lincoln vehicles twinned, keep Maverick for regular buyers and offer BS pickup as a higher series?   At the very least it would annoy those Jeep Gladiator buyers who don’t go off road and just want the look.

Little for you maybe.  Somebody bought 2.1M Ford branded vehicles last year.   Maverick, Bronco Sport, Mustang, Ranger, Explorer, Bronco, Expedition, F150, Super Duty, Transit, Mach-E and Lightning.  Plus 4 Lincolns.  And at least 5 new ones in development including an Escape replacement of some kind.

I don’t hate this.  Ford needs something like this, something to generate interest,  to keep or bring people into the Ford fold. With the demise of the Escape, there is little to consider from Ford.  

Forget smaller reg cab.  What if they replaced ranger and maverick with a cheaper unibody pickup?   Lower price equals more sales and lower cost = more profit.

I like the idea of a Bronco/Ranger pickup, at least for the U.S., where it would keep MAP operating at or near capacity.  Not sure how a Bronco/Ranger pickup would play elsewhere in the world.  

Yea, exactly. Toyota and Hyundai gave up on tiny Eurotrash style unibody blob crossovers in the U.S. market (Toyota dumped the C-HR, Hyundai cancelled the Venue).   So if even Toyota and Hyundai can't pull it off, there's no chance that Puma or any other global Ford product in this category would be successful in the U.S., and the big shots at Ford know it.

Actual dependability, not perceived. CR-V and RAV4 are the most dependable and longest lasting models among compact anonymous unibody blob SUV/crossover  

When it comes to trucks, what I would do is keep investing in, and strengthening the f-series to keep it class leading, but replace the ranger with a bronco pickup, something that looked virtually identical to the scout pickup with its boxy, rugged design. Keep the ranger name but the same truck for overseas markets where the ranger name is stronger.    This effectively turns the ranger into a more aspirational model that gives it additional selling points over the Tacoma and frontier. Keep the next gen maverick pretty similar to the current maverick, but give it things like a full width pass through so you have the best of both worlds with a longer bed when you need it, and a four door cab when you want it. Then do a sporty ute ranchero lifestyle truck at the very bottom.    Kinda alternate between lifestyle and fleet trucks that are differentiated from one another.