The 2023 Ford Maverick is a straightforward mini truck we’ve pushed and reviewed a couple of instances now; I drove a non-hybrid a yr in the past, loaded an attractive excellent jag of bulk lawn subject matter into its little mattress, and was once inspired that it was once truck sufficient to do gentle hauling tasks for the common suburbanite. It’s full of considerate design touches, comparable to all of the techniques Ford has compensated for the mattress length, and the fundamental however hip inside.

However a model we hadn’t pushed a lot is the Maverick Hybrid, the powerplant that stuck everyone’s consideration when the little truck was once offered. When the danger offered itself just lately, we had one large query that hadn’t been responded in earlier protection: What sort of real-world mileage would the Maverick Hybrid get?

Listed here are 5 ideas about this interesting little truck:

1. Because the web likes to mention, do that one bizarre twist

And by way of twist, we’re speaking an old style ignition key that you simply flip within the guidance column. No newfangled get started button right here.

The non-hybrid XLT additionally has a key, and we’ve got by no means given it a idea. However the Maverick Hybrid XLT combines this old-fangled generation with the rather new-fangled generation of a hybrid powerplant — and that mixture takes some being used to. Whilst you press the ignition button of a normal hybrid, you would not have a reflexive expectation of anything else rather then the automobile activating by hook or by crook or any other. However whilst you flip an ignition key, and you are a motive force of a definite age, you might have been conditioned by way of tens of hundreds of key turns over a life-time to be expecting an engine to stir up. So, whilst you key up the Maverick Hybrid and your ears are met with … not anything … your response each and every time is identical: “Oh crap, it gained’t get started. … Oh. Duh. It’s a hybrid.”

It is humorous the way it most effective takes a break up 2d in your thoughts to race to, “Geez, the place are my jumper cables?” However as soon as you know the dashboard has come alive and all is definitely, you merely twiddle the shifter dial and take off beneath electrical energy. It took maximum of per week of outings for me to lose that response. That’s my downside, now not the truck’s.

2. The Maverick Hybrid remains to be maddeningly onerous to search out

The Maverick Hybrid is this type of nice little rig, it’s no surprise it’s in such ridiculously prime call for. A seek of broker inventories inside a 50-mile radius grew to become up most effective 9 Mavericks — none of them the hybrid, and just about all appearing broker markups of $5,000-$9,000 over MSRP. In the meantime, 39 Rangers had been in inventory, and 266 full-size F-150s.

The seeming incapability to satisfy call for for the Maverick has given upward push to a conspiracy idea that it’s all a ruse, and that Ford, or no less than its sellers, would favor to upsell you to a large, pricey truck reasonably than provide you with what you in truth need. Let’s hope no one’s in truth that devious. The fewer cynical explanations are the lingering results of the chip scarcity, and Ford badly underestimating a staggering stage of passion in an reasonably priced small pickup. The corporate racked up 86,000 orders for the 2023 Maverick in simply seven days prior to order-taking was once close down.

3. ‘Tis a present to be easy

The inner of a Maverick in XLT trim is elementary and spare, but trendy. The fabrics are characterful, and the cabin is stuffed with helpful cubbies. The non-hybrid I drove remaining yr had an inside full of orange accents, whilst this Maverick Hybrid was once much less busy in black and blue, pairing well with its Atlas Blue Steel external. And a few onerous plastic at the sprint that gave the impression bizarre to touch within the first truck has both been softened somewhat, or perhaps I simply were given used to it. It’s tremendous.

I like how elementary and no-nonsense the Maverick is in XLT trim. No sophisticated options. The eight-inch infotainment device is rudimentary; they do not even name it Sync. Stereo? It really works, you’ll catch the scoop on it. HVAC? Blows cold and hot, yep. It does have force modes. And another way, neatly, that’s about it. The truck has what you wish to have and not anything you could not get alongside with out. If that is how you are making a automobile reasonably priced in this day and age, then that is completely applicable.

4. It’ll have compatibility into any automobile parking space

One of the crucial very best issues concerning the Maverick is how simple it’s to park. The week after the Maverick, it were given swapped for a Chevy Silverado ZR2 AEV Bison, a truck that needed to cross up many parking areas. You’ll put the Maverick any place.

One element that takes being used to are the strange inside door pulls. At one level, I parked, popped the door open, grabbed for the spot in house the place there’d normally be anything to carry onto, and got here up with a handful of air, as a result of at the Maverick the door take care of leads to a stub. After flailing, I ended the swing within the nick of time.

5. Maximum of all, the Maverick Hybrid will get nice fuel mileage

The EPA charges the Maverick Hybrid at 40 mpg town, 33 freeway, 37 mixed. Sounds spectacular. May it succeed in the ones numbers IRL? Possibly even beat them?

A couple of days operating suburban errands would expose the solution. I wasn’t hardcore hypermiling however drove somewhat, like anyone who’s paying somewhat of consideration to the mileage he is getting — which, should you’re enthusiastic about a Maverick Hybrid, you definitely do.

I stored it in Customary mode, by no means dabbled with Eco. The truck didn’t get off simple with strictly flatland tasks, both. I live to tell the tale a hill with an elevation of 500 toes, and it’s steep sufficient that the street up has switchbacks, so the Maverick needed to pull some grades. Despite the fact that after all each and every commute off the hill was once a regeneration goldmine.

There was once a forged mixture of floor streets and interstate, so the EPA mixed score of 37 mpg was once the quantity to benchmark towards.

The Maverick’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder is rated at 162 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque, with the electrical motor contributing to a complete of 191 horsepower. Ford, curiously, does now not cite a complete torque quantity, however a Maverick discussion board member claims 267 pound-feet, no less than for a brief burst. Regardless of the true numbers, the hybrid, which is the bottom powertrain, feels masses excellent sufficient for its undertaking.

The cabin is quiet and relaxed, like several conventional compact SUV. Transitions between electrical and ICE energy had been imperceptible, the CVT was once inoffensive as CVTs cross, and the regenerative device simply did its factor. A easy gauge means that you can know should you’re recouping or expending power.

No vary anxiousness right here: The Maverick began out the week estimating its vary at 550 miles.

With that 37 mpg because the quantity to overcome, the dashboard readout began heading north of that – the mileage determine even climbed at freeway velocity, which isn’t normally a hybrid’s strong point. Quickly it was once over 40 mpg. It hit 42.5 prior to settling again into the 41-something vary.

However there’s at all times a possibility {that a} dashboard laptop is, how let’s consider … beneficiant, adorned, rigged? Working example, Tesla’s accused of telling some whoppers with its vary readout.

So, I pulled right into a fuel station for a fill-up to decide the Maverick’s exact gas economic system.

Which was once: 44.0 miles in line with gallon.

The Maverick will get double the mileage of maximum full-size fuel pickups — and even triple. It cannot do the whole lot they do, however it may perform a little, now and again. And perhaps that is all of the capacity you wish to have.

Your mileage might, as you already know … range. Mine may, too. If I had attempted more difficult, the little truck may’ve accomplished even higher. The government’s fueleconomy.org website online has an underused characteristic — the power for automobile house owners to file the mileage they’ve skilled. Two Maverick house owners there claimed mileage of 47 mpg and 50.7. Conversely, should you drove the Maverick such as you didn’t care, it’d most definitely nonetheless do OK.

The EPA estimates you’ll spend $1,450 a yr on fuel with a Maverick Hybrid, and save $2,500 in gas prices over 5 years.

A Maverick Hybrid XL begins at $23,400. An XLT supplied like this actual truck (XLT Luxurious package deal, black look package deal, Co-Pilot 360 assists, spray-in bedliner, all-weather mats) would value you $30,625 together with the $1,495 vacation spot rate — this is, should you had been ready to get one at MSRP from an honorable dealership.

3 weeks after I discovered simply 9 Mavericks in stock inside a 50-mile radius, a recent seek grew to become up 22 of them, and 5 had been hybrids. Broker markups had fallen to as low as $3,000 over MSRP, regardless that the hybrids had been nonetheless getting marked up up to $10K by way of the worst pirates. However the shortage scenario could be easing somewhat — and your probability to seize a modestly priced, 40-mpg-plus pickup truck might occur in the future.