Ford's Finally Building a Bronco Pickup. Only Took Them Six Years.

Ford showed us the new Bronco in July of 2020. Six years later, people are finally saying out loud that a pickup version is coming.

Automotive News broke it, citing folks who know Ford's product plans. Bronco pickup near the end of the decade, which puts it right around ten years after the SUV showed up. A hybrid Bronco lands way before that, reportedly in 2027. Neither one sounds like an all-new Bronco. Read it as a mid-cycle refresh, which tracks with the same report saying Ford wants to freshen up about 80 percent of its North American lineup before 2029.

Ten years is a long time to leave money on the table

Jeep's been selling the Gladiator since 2019. Open-top four-door with a bed, no direct competition, and Ford just watched it happen. I don't know what took so long, but I know what it cost them.

Because this is the easy one. The chassis exists. The tooling exists. The demand exists, and it's been screaming for years. Every Bronco owner I've talked to has floated the same thought without being asked: put a bed on it.

And here's what makes a Bronco pickup interesting to a guy like me. A midsize truck with a real removable roof and doors that come off is a blank sheet for anybody who builds. Lift it, tuck it, tube it, drop something bigger under the hood. Jeep proved the aftermarket will show up. Ford's about to hand them a second platform.

The hybrid isn't news, it's overdue

A hybrid Bronco has been floating around basically since day one. Leaked Sync software showed an EV coaching feature a few days after the 2020 reveal, and Jim Hackett, who was running Ford at the time, told shareholders they'd be putting hybrid systems into the high-volume profitable stuff, Bronco included.

Six years to actually do it. Fine. For a rig that spends real time in low range, electric torque down low is genuinely useful, and so is having a battery you can run tools off of at camp.

The bigger play

The report frames all this as Ford leaning back into gas and hybrids and stepping off the expensive-EV pedal. There's a Bronco-based Lincoln in there, a midsize electric pickup called the Fathom starting around thirty grand, and the four-door Mustang everybody in the industry already knows about.

What Ford's really doing is turning Bronco, Mustang, and F-Series into families instead of models. One name, a whole shelf of vehicles. Jeep's run that playbook with Wrangler for years and it works.

The Monkey take

Good move, late move. Build it with a locker, keep the roof and doors coming off, and don't price it into Raptor money. If Ford does that, they'll sell every one they can put together.

Sources: Jalopnik, opens in a new tab, reporting on Automotive News, opens in a new tab.

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