Say, remember those slick-looking “donut” doors shown on the two-door Ford Bronco, at the time of its reveal back in July, 2020? Worn by a gussied-up tangerine-hued Bronco wearing a whole catalog’s worth of upgrades, those doors were expected to be among the slew of official Ford accessories available for the sixth-generation Bronco. Sadly, the Blue Oval promptly doused our hopes in cold water shortly after the SUV’s reveal, saying that the doors weren’t ever intended for sale. It’s a crying shame, too, because they’re a rather fetching, sensible alternative to the aftermarket tubular-steel doors (or half doors) sometimes fitted to off-road vehicles.
Image via USPTO## Jeep Wrangler Donut Door Patent Image Discovered
But the donut door concept might not be entirely dead; it just probably won’t be the Bronco that offers them. As The Drive reports, a recently-published design patent from Stellantis (then FCA) depicts a four-door Jeep Wrangler wearing eerily similar doors in the front and rear. The patent application was actually filed in May, 2017, but was only recently made available. Notably, that means that Jeep’s application came just a month after the JKU Wrangler “Switchback” concept (pictured below) was unveiled with essentially exactly the same donut doors that are depicted in this design patent application.
Donut doors like these would, in theory, provide essentially the same free, open-air-driving experience as a set of tubular steel doors for the Jeep Wrangler, but with a bit more safety, a clean factory look, and maybe a bit more door storage.
Jeep Wrangler Switchback concept. Photo via FCA.
It’s important to note that a design patent would in no way preclude Ford from making its own donut doors for the Bronco; design patents only extend to very specific product designs, and as far as we know, Jeep’s parent company has not been granted a utility patent on the donut door concept. But by the same token, just because Stellantis holds a patent does not necessarily mean that the company has any intention of ever offering such a thing for sale.
Still, we can hope.
Image via Ford Motor Company.
