Ford knocked it out of the park with the Maverick, their new compact unibody pickup. It made our Best Cars to Buy in 2022 list; indeed, it has been so popular, Ford has had to shut down orders for both the hybrid and combustion versions — though you may be able to find the odd one at a dealer. But it also seems the Maverick may soon get a new feature that could be seriously cool for car camping.
USPTO
USPTOMuscle Cars & Trucks uncovered a Ford patent application for a truck bed ventilation system. The system would cycle air from the cabin into the truck bed. The patent application stipulates that the system could work with both body-on-frame and unibody pickup trucks.
Having such a system would effectively allow for a climate-control system in the truck bed. That could be helpful if you’re porting sensitive gear on particularly hot or cold days. It could also be useful if you’re camping with a camper shell or tent from your truck bed.
A truck bed ventilation feature would make more sense for an electric truck — wastefully idling a combustion car to provide an ambient climate in the great outdoors is more of a Lincoln buyer activity. Perhaps not coincidentally, Ford is plotting a range of electric pickups that will arrive over the next few years.
The all-new Ford F-150 Lightning will start hitting driveways this spring. Ford has been teasing the silhouette of a smaller EV pickup, which could be an electric, unibody Maverick. There’s a new Ford EV truck platform arriving in 2025.
