Ford already has a wide range of utes, but it appears to have found gaps into which it can squeeze a couple more.
In addition to a previously confirmed ‘mid-size’ (ie: Ranger-sized) electric ute that’s due in 2027 and based on its new Universal EV platform, Ford has confirmed its plans for another new ute.
When asked about Ford’s recently announced plans to launch five new models priced below US$40,000 (A$56,450) in the US market, Ford CFO Sherry House confirmed one of these would be a new ute.
“We had talked [in December 2025] about putting more ICE [internal combustion-engined] trucks into our Tennessee factory,” she said at the Wolfe Research Auto conference on February 11, 2026, referring to the Stanton plant previously earmarked for electric vehicle (EV) production.
“So we’re going to have that, looking at providing another variant that we have not yet disclosed.”
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Ford CEO Jim Farley was similarly coy last month during a visit from US President Donald Trump to the automaker’s Dearborn Truck Plant.
“We’re adding a combustion vehicle – a combustion truck, an affordable one – in Tennessee… We’re going to actually expand one of our existing plants and make a different kind of truck there,” he said.
Andrew Frick, who leads the automaker’s Ford Blue business and Model e EV divisions, confirmed to Automotive News this month that the five new sub-US$40,000 vehicles would be new nameplates, indicating this new vehicle wouldn’t wear an existing name like Maverick.
“We are planning by the end of the decade to have five new vehicles starting with the UEV that would be under $40,000… Today… you’ve got our Bronco Sport, you have our Maverick, but then we’re looking with the UEV in 2027 and then some other products thereafter,” said Ms House.
The as-yet-unnamed model is set to enter production in 2029, but Ford hasn’t confirmed any specifications for the vehicle.
Ford currently offers three different ute/pickup nameplates in the US with base prices below US$40,000: the car-derived Maverick dual-cab from US$28,145 (A$39,700); the Ranger dual-cab from US$33,350 (A$47,000); and the F-150 pickup from US$37,290 (A$52,600).
The company has previously confirmed it was targeting a base price of around US$30,000 (A$42,350) for the new electric ute, which could wear the Ranchero nameplate.
With a mix of two mid-size ICE utes, one mid-size electric ute, and one full-size ICE pickup to be available in Ford’s American showrooms by the end of 2027, it’s unclear where this other vehicle would fit in.
Notably, Ford doesn’t have any regular-cab or super-cab utes in the US market apart from the F-150, with the unibody Maverick and body-on-frame Ranger being offered only in dual-cab ute guise.
Today’s Ranger is also quite a bit larger than early generations of that nameplate, which offered body styles under five metres long.
While buyer demand for dual-cab configurations is strong, it’s possible Ford is looking at two-door options in order to be able to offer a ute with a more attractive base price.
It would be wishful thinking to suggest Ford is looking at offering a car-derived two-door ute again, however, despite its filing to protect the Ranchero trademark in 2025.
While Ford offered a Falcon ute in Australia up until 2016, it axed its car-based Ranchero ute in the US back in 1979.
General Motors discontinued the rival Chevrolet El Camino/GMC Caballero twins after 1987, and its plans to sell the Holden VE Commodore ute there as a Pontiac were scuttled shortly after its 2008 debut at the New York motor show.
After the demise of the iconic El Camino, car-based utes have proved few and far between in the US – unlike markets like Australia and Latin America, where they thrived – with a long gap until the 2003-06 Subaru Baja, and then another gap until the current Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz launched for 2022.
Notably, all of those car-derived utes offered in the US this century have featured a dual-cab configuration.
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