The midsize truck segment is looking bright over the next few years, and may include a Ford Bronco-based pickup.
For a good long while, the midsize truck segment has more or less been set in stone. You have Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, Ford Ranger, Honda Ridgeline, Jeep Gladiator, Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma among your mainstream options. The landscape could shift over the next few years though, as players like Hyundai and Volkswagen potentially join the fray. But that’s not all — Ford could have another contender in the ring within the next four years, by way of a Bronco-based truck.
That’s according to a report from Automotive News, citing people with inside knowledge of the Blue Oval’s forward-looking plans. It’s worth noting a couple things, namely that the rumor mill has been buzzing over the years with how Bronco will evolve and that Ford’s plans also include a four-door Mustang.
Should you take the notion of a Bronco-based pickup with a grain of salt? Absolutely, and you can take anything up to a boulder, for that matter (Hyundai might object to that, though). That said, as Ford execs directly eye their rivals over at Stellantis with the Jeep Wrangler and the closely related Gladiator, the idea is a plausible one. As manufacturers build their identities around sub-brands, Bronco will ultimately grow to become more than it currently is. Even this current generation spawned a “full-size” Bronco and a “baby” Bronco Sport, so why not take things a couple steps further?
For now, Ford isn’t offering up any official comment of a Bronco pickup truck. If it happens, though, Automotive News notes “by 2030” as a potential launch window. If you’re wondering why so late, it’s because a hybrid Bronco SUV is buzzing even louder, with that model supposedly making it to the public for the 2028 model year. Like the existing Bronco, Ford would build the rumored truck at its Michigan Assembly Plant.
What happens to the Ranger, then?
Here’s the rub, however. Ford’s possible decision to build a Bronco pickup alongside its SUV counterpart would push the Ranger out from the Wayne, Michigan facility. Instead, the company would shift production of that truck down to Tennessee, just in time for a next-generation Ranger to hit the scene around 2029.
In the smaller and ostensibly more affordable side of its truck operation, Ford seems like it may branch off certain customers into these different silos. In other words, you’d have the Maverick and, when it arrives around 2028, the electric Fathom more or less in the same size class. Then you’d move up to either a Bronco truck or the Ranger. Keep moving up the ladder and you get into the ever-popular F-Series, which obviously comprises F-150 all the way up through Super Duty models and the medium-duty commercial trucks.
Looking back over at Stellantis, a potential Bronco truck could give Ford a more direct strategy to take on two brands instead of one. The Bronco would naturally be a rival to the Jeep Gladiator, while the Ranger could aim its sights at the long-awaited Ram Dakota.
We’ll have to wait and see exactly how the challengers shape up in the coming years. That said, this report at least makes it sound like we could have a serious scrap between manufacturers for midsize truck buyers near the end of the decade.
