The Ford Bronco, F-Series trucks, and the Maverick are all in high demand, with thousands of orders having accumulated the moment order books open. The Maverick has been a primary seller for Ford; despite markups bringing the price ever higher, customers still want more, and within the first quarter of 2023, the Blue Oval has sold less than 22,000 units, as the automaker continues to deal with supply chain kinks and unexpected demand for the small truck.
Nobody thought a small truck would sell well here in the USA? There were no statistics pointing to the need for a more utilitarian, frugal choice for customers? Really?
In any case, there appears to be more hope for potential Maverick customers, however. Ford plans to add a third shift to the Hermosillo Assembly Plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, where the Maverick is built, as well as the Ford Bronco Sport. Additionally, Ford is also working to hire 6,100 new workers to make it happen.
Image copyright Manoli Katakis, Muscle Cars & Trucks.
CEO Jim Farley recently spoke during Ford’s annual shareholder meeting, revealing that despite these efforts, he doesn’t think they’ll be able to satisfy demand, and the company deeply underestimated how popular the tiny truck would be. The slow production has been causing buyers to wait over ten months for their trucks, and a better solution may need to be employed to keep up with demand, as it won’t be lowering anytime soon.
“Yeah, we’re going to have a capacity increase in July at the plant. That’ll help. Unfortunately, we completely under-called the demand for Mavericks. So, I’m not confident even with the capacity increase that we’re going to have a lot of Mavericks available to everyone. We still have – look, we have a ten day supply of the vehicle. You can find Mavericks. The capacity increase will help, but clearly, the vehicles hit a really positive nerve, especially with the U.S. consumer. And we’re doing everything we can to increase, especially our supply chain, to increase the production.” – Farley
With the Ford Maverick and (to a lesser extent) the Hyundai Santa Cruz representing the only new small pickup trucks for sale in the USA and Canada, the opportunity is there for somebody else to take a slice of the pie, but the competition has been slow to react. That said, there are more small trucks likely on the way.
Toyota and Nissan are working extensively on getting something to market quickly to appease Ford Maverick customers stuck in a holding pattern. Even Subaru and Mitsubishi are working on small pickup trucks of their own. Yet Ford’s biggest truck rivals, GM (Chevrolet and GMC) and (Stellantis Ram Trucks), appear to be sitting on their hands. At least for the USA and Canada markets. South of the border, however, one can find ample small trucks from Chevrolet, Ram, and even Fiat.
In Brazil, Ram is preparing to release the Rampage small truck, where it will sell alongside the even smaller Fiat Strada and Fiat Toro small trucks. Other Latin American countries see these trucks sold as the Ram 700 and Ram 1000, respectively. Yet none of these small trucks from Stellantis grace USA or Canadian shores.
As for General Motors, the Chevrolet brand sells small trucks for other markets but has yet to express plans to bring something to the USA or Canada. These include the newly revealed Chevrolet Montana and midsized Chevrolet S10, as well as the China-made S10 Max for Mexico.
Should Chevrolet eventually sell a small truck in its home market, it likely will be something altogether new, and fully electric.
