Has Ford made any statement why this changed a bit into the 2026 production year?

Oh I know, I'm thinking out loud with you/was trying to understand the plan you were thinking of.   That's true regarding OHAP.  I doubt it'll be the Custom.  maybe we're getting out own unique van?  I.e. not Connect, not Custom........Transit Craft?   lol     I struggle to see the appeal of something like that with the bed being so small, aside from just plain cheap.  It'd have to have some sort of midgate to be reasonable for truck usage.   I also question the sales pool for it, and more importantly I can't see it selling enough to fill an entire factory at US employee pricing if you're slotting it under maverick in the $20-30k range....

When has Ford actually replaced a platform before it was "supposed" to be replaced-the modus operandi is drive it into the ground before it is replaced.    Ford has been reactive for the past 25 years, not proactive. 

But what would it offer there over the 5.0?   I think the main reason was to have a lower cost alternative to the 7.3L for fleets and low-dollar customers in the Super Duty.  They probably found out it wasn't really adding to the bottom line.

Maybe that platform isn't returning good margins and they have a new platform that will be thousands of dollars cheaper to build and more flexible.  And maybe it can be applied to multiple sized trucks.

FTFY

I never understood the need either.  I thought it was to fit it in mustang and/or f150.

That doesn't look bad, it would look better with the Trailblazer front end though 😛  

For reference here is the Chevy Montana:    Given the Santa Cruz sucked, I wouldn’t expect say more trucky styling like the Maverick is better.

I'm just trying to figure out the most likely course of action that makes the most sense.   There is a van going to OHAP, which I'd assume is based on the Maverick, but people have shot that down because its C2 based.      Not sure how much assembly line tooling can be reused-I know of a horror story I heard-when Edison was shut down about 20 years ago, some equipment was moved to Twin Cities to be used there for assembly of the Ranger. Apparently it was just left in outdoor storage area/parking lot and was water damaged and made unusable.