Michigan-based American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has become one of the most well-known and respected names in the off-road aftermarket, offering top-shelf upfits . The company has been hard at work with the release of the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison, Silverado ZR2 Bison, GMC Canyon AT4X AEV Edition, and Sierra AT4X AEV Edition. All offer some of the most off-road capable trucks you can buy straight from the factory. However, with this enormous success, we asked AEV’s Matt Felderman if the company plans to launch products for the increasingly popular Ford Bronco.
Will AEV Make A Ford Bronco Package?
“We have a few things like we have wheels and other bits. But, going all in on bumpers and all that stuff, we haven’t really,” Felderman told MC&T during the 2022 AEV Open House last year. “It’s a lot of work right now, just keeping up with what we have. And it’s not like it’s free to make a bumper, right? You have to pay for the tooling, you have to pay for the testing, you have to pay for the prototype. It’s an expensive venture to make a new product. So, it’s one of those things where we’ve always aired on the side of caution and say we’d rather be the best at a few platforms rather than try to be good at all of them. So, the Ford Bronco is a different animal.”
Even with the arrival of the Ford Bronco Raptor, AEV still doesn’t express any interest in creating an upfitted Bronco like that of the Chevrolet and GMC vehicles. But, with that perspective, we can understand why. Not to mention that Ford’s Raptor products are tailored more towards the Baja space than rock-crawling. In other words, high-speed desert driving versus low-speed technical events.
Photo via AEV
“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it (Baja); it’s just that we’re more dynamic than that. We’re more technical. Going slow but going deep. We have enough of a toe in the desert racing scene just with our association with Chevy that we can still extract some of that knowledge and apply it to other things. But, overall, we’re still kind of on the same course we were.” Felderman stated.
AEV makes some serious overlanding vehicles that are considered some of the world’s best. But while it feels like an AEV Bronco is out of reach, there’s nevertheless a deep well of top shelf aftermarket support for the funnest Ford SUV. Look no further than ARB, Roush, RTR Vehicles, and others for solid Bronco aftermarket accessories and turn-key packages.
Image via Chevrolet
