We know Ford is planning a compact, affordable, tough-looking unibody pickup; we know that it will probably be named the Maverick. We have a good idea when it’ll be here, too: a report that landed earlier this week revealed a slide from a Ford presentation to Bank of America that referenced a “whitespace” vehicle launching in 2021, which all signs point to be the compact truck. Now, we’re perhaps the best visual evidence yet that development is progressing swiftly: the picture you see below.
The good folks over at Motor1 recently received a picture of what appears to be the Maverick’s tailgate from an anonymous source (presumably, one inside the Ford facility where prototyping is being done). As far as we can tell, the part seen her eis smaller than the Ranger’s tailgate. It has “MAVERICK” printed on it, which seems like a giveaway. It matches the mockup of the tailgate from a previously leaked CAD drawing, and it also doesn’t look like an obvious Photoshop job. As the Magic 8-Ball used to say, all signs point to yes.
Ford does not comment on future vehicles or plans as a matter of policy, but judging from how the new Bronco and updated F-150 launches played out, we can probably expect a steady stream of leaked photos and details as we build closer to the Maverick launch date. We should soon be learning more about what sort of competition the Maverick will face in the soon-to-be-growing compact pickup truck market, as well.