Speaking of air brakes and 7.3L gasoline engines, I saw a 7.3L propane powered Bluebird Vision schoolbus yesterday and it sure sounded like it had air brakes.  Bluebird says air brakes, both disc and drum, are options on gasoline and propane 7.3L Visions.   https://blue-bird.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gasoline_Vision_Spec_Sheet_2021-0121.pdf   

Sometimes on styling bucks, they do different things on different sides

Maybe Ford is done with  its VW JV at Cologne? maybe that makes more sense than giving up Valencia for the moment…

This, Ford Nth America always wanted a replacement for 2011 Ranger that was smaller than T6 offered, it didn’t really need the robustness of an international 1 tonne pickup and would have preferred the Maverick right from the start but Mulally wouldn’t hear of a small pickup replacing the 2011 Ranger but think about it, if Maverick and Focus had been built at Wayne, maybe the outcome would have been different…       That was an issue to do with Ford NA taking a version of last Gen T6 after that global update model PX III had been signed off. That move meant the US was stuck with older Ranger for too long, out of step with  T6.2 Ranger global launch…

So Ford plans to share its Valencia plant with Geely in exchange for some tech access. Ford's upcoming Focus-sized crossover will also be built there but will be built on Ford's own platform?    I'm assuming this is a Europe-only plan.

I think they saw Maverick below and took it as an opportunity to prune cheap Rangers from the lineup, because doing that also allowed them to make more Broncos. i agree that it doesn’t make sense how they’ve handled it, as a SuperCab Ranger would still appeal to a different customer than a Maverick.   Also, regarding styling, that’s what happens when you release a truck in the rest of the world a year or two ahead of launching it here….it’ll be old before it even launches.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough customers. The market has spoken about full sized BEV pickups. 

There also doesn’t appear to be a color difference beyond that panel line below the guys left hand though 

I was thinking the same thing. Ford kept at least one of their new battery plants to build commercial-scale battery storage. They could re-deploy that plant in the future if needed.

Here is my guess. The grille is black, but maybe the body is a different color. At arrow #1 you can see the vehicle has that tape with the paper on it. At arrows #2-3 you can see that same tape that looks like it’s been painted over. Maybe they taped off the grille so they could paint it black.