Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are increasingly recognized as the world’s best hope for phasing out greenhouse gas emissions from road transportation, but efficient hybrids are making their own important contribution to this critical environmental effort. In the coming decades, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and BEVs will work in tandem to displace the carbon dioxide generated by conventional vehicles, with each green powertrain appealing to its own group of consumers. It is especially important that we make progress decarbonizing gas-guzzling pickup trucks, and Ford’s trailblazing Maverick Hybrid is an efficient workhorse that delivers noteworthy environmental benefits.
The Ford Maverick is a small, popular pickup that is available with a conventional internal combustion engine but can also be configured with a hybrid powertrain that offers outstanding fuel economy. The Environmental Protection Agency’s fueleconomy.gov website provides a list of U.S. pickups ranked by their relative energy efficiency, and the distinctiveness of the Maverick Hybrid becomes apparent when examining this list. According to the EPA, the most efficient pickups available in the United States are BEVs with combined MPGe ratings that range from 84 to 48. Topping the BEVs are numerous variants of the Rivian R1T, followed by the most efficient Ford F-150 Lightning models. Two versions of the 2024 GMC Hummer are ranked near the bottom of the fully electric pickups with combined MPGe ratings of 53 and 50, and the 2023 Lordstown Endurance is the least efficient BEV at 48. The next pickup on the list is the 2024 Ford Maverick HEV with an extraordinary combined MPG rating of 37, followed by conventional versions of the Maverick, the Chevy Silverado, and the GMC Sierra, all of which earn combined MPG ratings of 26. The remainder of the list is comprised of roughly 250 pickup models with combined MPG ratings that range from 25 to 12.
A conventional Maverick’s ample powertrain features a 238-horsepower 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine bolted to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The 191-horsepower hybrid setup makes use of an assisted 2.5-liter four-banger and a continuously variable transmission. Both powertrains come standard with front-wheel-drive but are available with all-wheel-drive. They also share a payload capacity of 1,500 pounds and a towing capacity of 2,000 pounds that can be doubled to 4,000 by purchasing an enhanced towing package. The hybrid’s stellar fuel economy delivers 42 miles to the gallon when driven in the city and 511 miles of total range. The sturdy runabout packs a lot of utility into a small package, offering a modest bed and enough room in the cabin for four passengers.
The Maverick Hybrid provides substantial benefits to the environment by filling an otherwise empty niche in the pickup truck segment. A consumer looking for a small, capable pickup truck has few options, none of which are fully electric. If that same consumer is concerned enough about the environment to make fuel economy a top priority, an efficient hybrid is really the only solution, and the Maverick Hybrid is the only vehicle that checks all the boxes. A combined MPG rating of 37 is an astounding figure for a pickup truck of this caliber, and it puts the Maverick in a class by itself.