Perhaps that’s the best solution but I still think a van that narrow will have limited appeal and market success in North America. And if it looks like a pickup with a van body tacked on like the hideous Nissan full-size vans, Ford should probably cancel it and save the required investment.
Related to this, GM is rumored to be working with Hyundai on a new EV van smaller than BrightDrop for NA, and it would not surprise me at all if they (Chevy and or Hyundai) also offer ICE and or hybrid powertrain variants. I have not seen any design details at all, but would expect a new van to be at least as large as the Hyundai Staria or previous Starex. Those are much wider than Maverick, and closer to Transit Custom, which by the way are all in same width range as Honda, Toyota and Stellantis minivans. I understand the hope for a Transit Connect direct replacement but personally don’t see enough demand because of its small interior size. As long as Ford makes new van small and light enough to work with 4-cylinder hybrid powertrain I suppose it’s better than nothing. 👍
Possible future competition from GM/Hyundai collaboration? Perhaps similar to this?
I sense that Farley is over US based ICE engineers and their big book
of doing things the old way. Eyes are being opened by other projects,
so let’s hope this flows through to much better products.
akirby brought up good ergonomics, it takes a lot more
research and questioning of control placement, it shows
that engineering team are learning and taking notice of
changes for the better.
this is an excuse. So instead let’s have them diverge and put money to two different refreshes?
The engineering is already done, bring the better updates here.
while Bronco gets more of a pass given its limited and loyal segment, Bronco Sport competes in a much more competitive segment, even if it’s put itself in a more specific slice of the segment. It cannot go as long as the big Bronco can and expect sales momentum to stay the same, IMO. The only way it might get lucky is because Ford is dropping its internal competitor - Escape, so if you want a small SUV from Ford, BS will be it for a while.
That's exactly right. Orion was a Canadian company but opened their NY plant to get the incentives. Nova Bus opened a plant in Plattsburgh for the same reason.
Rick73, Transit customer at 79” wide is larger than Transit Connect based Maverick (72.5”)
So what Ford is looking to do is sell a Transit Connect sized van with Maverick front end.
As an owner of an Escape PHEV I recently got a marketing type of e-mail from Ford. It had a one liner in it that caught my eye. It said "Like your hybrid Escape or Corsair? Stay tuned." I have been looking all over for it so I could post it here but now I can't find it anywhere. I wish I would have saved it. But it does sound like Ford has something cooking.