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DETROIT The cheapest option in Ford Motor Co.'s North American lineup will soon be a pickup.
The 2022 Maverick, scheduled to hit showrooms this fall, will become the new entry point into the Ford brand. The compact pickup, unwrapped Tuesday, will have a starting price of $21,490, including a $1,495 shipping charge, making it $150 less expensive than the base EcoSport subcompact crossover, Ford's least expensive offering today.
Company officials are betting that the attractive price and a host of what Ford calls "neat" features will be enough to retain some entry-level car buyers who felt abandoned after the automaker cut sedans from its lineup three years ago. Ford also is hoping to expand its pickup family with customers who may be turned off by the size and sticker price of the F-Series full-size or Ranger midsize pickups.
"Overall, it's just a much more manageable truck for a lot of people," Heath Hilliard, the Maverick's creative exterior designer, said in a video prepared for the media.
It will be the first Ford to come standard with a hybrid engine, which is expected to get fuel economy of 40 mpg city. It can haul up to 1,500 pounds, and it can tow up to 4,000 pounds with an optional EcoBoost gasoline engine.
Although the vehicle is 11 inches shorter and about $5,000 less expensive than the Ranger, it went through many of the same durability trials as Ford's larger F-150 and Super Duty pickups. All told, the Maverick underwent 19 million miles of testing, which officials say gives them confidence to expand the "Built Ford Tough" truck family to include a unibody vehicle.
"Our engineers were unrelenting, putting it through a battery of vicious on-road, off-road, environmental and simulated customer use testing until we were satisfied," Chris Mazur, the Maverick's chief engineer, said in a statement. "Ford trucks are Ford trucks through and through."
Flexible bed
Ford says the main attraction of the four-door, five-seat pickup is its multipurpose "flexbed."
There are a number of tie-down points, including one that doubles as a bottle opener (a popular feature on the Bronco Sport crossover, with which the Maverick shares a platform). It also has slots stamped into the side of the bed that can fit 2x6 or 2x4 lumber, which gives owners the option to divide the storage areas or create do-it-yourself bike racks.
There's an available 110-volt outlet and up to two optional storage cubbies on the sides of the bed.
The tailgate can be positioned at a 45-degree angle, allowing it to accommodate plywood.
"The whole bed is a DIY fan's paradise," Keith Daugherty, an engineering specialist who worked on it, said in the statement.
Interior, exterior features
The Maverick sits on the same unibody front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive C2 platform that underpins the Bronco Sport, Escape and Lincoln Corsair. Officials say it shares about 60 percent common parts with the Bronco Sport, and its front-end design is similar, although the Maverick's headlights and grille are more in line with those on Ford's other pickups.
Inside, it comes standard with an 8-inch touch screen. It will have an embedded modem, which Ford is expanding to its entire vehicle lineup.
The rear has underseat storage that's deep enough to fit a basketball or volleyball. The sides of each door feature a break in the door handle that allows for a tall, one-liter water bottle.
The standard hybrid engine is expected to have 191 hp and 155 pound-feet of torque. The optional 2-liter EcoBoost gasoline engine is expected to have 250 hp and 277 pound-feet of torque.
The Maverick will come in three trims: XL, XLT and Lariat. An FX4 off-road package is available on awd XLT and Lariat models.
Ford is also offering a Maverick First Edition package for 2022 model-year vehicles that includes unique graphics and wheels.
Customers can sign up to buy the Maverick through a reservation system similar to what Ford has done with the Bronco and Mustang Mach-E, although there is no deposit required.
Target customers
Ford said it's targeting entry-level sedan buyers as well as shoppers who might otherwise choose a midsize pickup or crossover. The Maverick will be geared toward younger millennials and women, according to marketers.
It will square off against Hyundai's Santa Cruz compact pickup, which will beat the Maverick to market this summer.
Cox Automotive, which surveyed 270 consumers in March, found that 51 percent of respondents had very favorable views of the Maverick, followed by 42 percent for the Santa Cruz. The study found cargo space, fuel efficiency and price were the top three purchase considerations.
Some of those customers, officials hope, are already in the Ford family but no longer have a Fiesta, Focus, Fusion or Taurus to choose from.
"That was probably one of the main strategic rationales for Maverick: the desire to retain customers. . "Many are at that point where their trade cycle is ending and they're coming back to the showroom. There will always be people who don't want a truck, but we feel there will be enough people who say, 'OK, price point, fuel economy, storage. ... I didn't really know I needed a truck, but I need this one.' There are some car owners we think will readily adopt this."