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The 2025 Ford Maverick remains the sole compact pickup truck on sale in North America—and it’s been a smash success since it launched, with Ford adding a third shift at its plant to meet the demand. That suggests not every American pickup buyer needs something the size of Ford’s F-Series, which remains the best-selling vehicle line in the US after four decades.
In particular, the Maverick made headlines in 2022 by offering a hybrid version that returned a 37 mpg combined EPA rating—against 26 mpg for its non-hybrid counterpart. Now, in its fourth model year, Ford has added the feature most requested by Maverick Hybrid buyers: all-wheel drive. And it’s rated at the same 37 mpg, no less.
However, a storm cloud hovers over the new feature and the new model year: All Mavericks are made in Mexico, meaning they may well be subject to an import tariff—though details of how or whether that may be applied remain in flux at the time of writing.
The Maverick retains the clever design features that won acclaim when it launched. Slots in the FlexBed accept many sizes and types of lumber, while a half-open position for the tailgate lets DIYers carry flat boards. Owners who fancy themselves "makers” can wire their own LED bed lights—Ford built in a plug connector just for them.
Still, it’s the AWD Hybrid that’s the big news this year. And it turned out to require more work than simply swapping in a second driveshaft and a rear axle. Ford had to design an entirely new generation of its two-motor hybrid transaxle to make it work. For 2025, the previous third-generation system (known as HF45) has been replaced by a far more powerful fourth-gen system (HF55). WIRED got the details during almost an hour with Abby Grajek, the Maverick’s vehicle integration engineer—which in non-Detroit terms means she’s responsible for ensuring every performance target and user need specified for the vehicle is translated onto the assembly line and, hopefully, delivered properly.
Haul Much More Than Last Hybrid
The Maverick’s Ford C2 platform is fundamentally oriented toward front-wheel-drive powertrains, as found in the Ford Escape (North America) and Kuga (in Europe), the soon-to-be-discontinued Europe-only Focus, and the Lincoln Corsair among others. When AWD was needed for the truck, Ford stuck with a traditional mechanical system that takes the combined power output of the engine and hybrid system and splits it between two drive units: one for the front wheels, one for the rear. This stands in contrast to Toyota and other hybrid makers, who use a small e-motor on the rear axle to add incremental power on demand.
The AWD Maverick Hybrid had to provide the same towing capacity as its turbo 2.0-liter gasoline counterpart, meaning a tow rating of up to 4,000 pounds if the “4K towing option” is specified. In practical terms, that meant that when towing, the total output of the engine and hybrid system had to be high enough to power a 3,850-pound vehicle, up to four occupants and cargo, plus a 4,000-pound trailer—effectively hauling a second vehicle, meaning double the weight the previous hybrid system had to tow. The new transaxle’s internal cooling had to be robust enough to tow that combined weight up a steep grade for many miles without the electric motors overheating.
By comparison, the tow rating for the Escape Hybrid is a paltry 1,500 pounds, and the previous Escape Hybrid, in FWD-only form, was rated at 2,000 pounds. Even that 2,000-pound rating had required a change to the motor design of the previous HF45 system to improve lubricant flow to ensure sufficient cooling under maximum load. The new HF55 system had to do far better. “We weren’t confident the previous system would do [everything] necessary” to provide the proper towing capacity and performance, said Grajek.
Quicker and Cooler
To deliver that performance, every component of the new HF55 hybrid transaxle (now used in all Maverick Hybrid versions) is uprated while continuing to fit within the same package size as its predecessor. Torque from the drive motor rises from 235 to 320 Newton-meters (173 to 236 pound-feet), while the generator’s power output goes from 78 to 96 kilowatts (105 to 129 horsepower).
The new motors, combined with an essentially unchanged 2.5-liter Atkinson Cycle inline-4, boosts maximum powertrain output to 142 kW (191 hp) at (an unspecified) peak battery output. The hybrid engine turns out to run cooler overall (likely due to the added power supplied by the traction motor), meaning it delivers better cooling performance, even when towing, than the 2.0-liter turbo alternative: Grajek noted that even with the 4K package, Maverick Hybrids retained the standard radiator rather than the uprated version required for the turbo powertrain.
For better off-the-line performance, the rear axle ratio is raised to 3.37:1 from 2.91:1. Despite that, on-road performance improves: Ford says the 0-to-60-mph acceleration time is cut by 18 percent to 6.8 seconds, while a critical highway-passing-time metric improves roughly 10 percent.
Gas Mileage Tells the Story
The EPA ratings speak for themselves: A 2025 Maverick Hybrid gets a combined rating of 38 mpg in FWD form and loses only 1 mpg when AWD is added. So when this 37-mpg compact pickup, with four seats, can tow up to 4,000 pounds—what’s not to like? (Like all hybrids, its city rating of 40 mpg AWD or 42 mpg FWD is higher than its highway rating, since the truck will operate on electric power only during some lower-speed usage.)
Other changes to all Maverick models for 2025 include a larger center touchscreen, now 13.2 inches, and a standard 8-inch digital instrument cluster on every trim. Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is now standard—another much-requested owner item—as is Sync 4, with the pale blue-and-white user interface familiar to Mustang Mach-E owners.
For 2025, all models include an onboard Wi-Fi hot spot. Options among various trim levels include wireless smartphone charging, a high-end B&O Play stereo system, and SiriusXM satellite radio. The XL, XLT, luxury Lariat, and off-road Tremor trim levels carry over—with the AWD Hybrid available on all but Tremor.
On the Road
Behind the wheel, drivers enjoy good outward visibility from the upright cabin–better than most compact SUVs these days. The rotary shift selector takes a bit of getting used to but allows for two generous cupholders in the console. Once underway, certain road surfaces produce noticeable tire noise (at least in our XLT test truck), but like most modern hybrids, Ford has significantly tamed engine roar—to the point the engine switching on is often imperceptible.
Happily, the Maverick drives more like a compact car than a pickup truck, though the stiffer springs required for its 1,400-pound payload and trailer-towing abilities make its unladen ride a touch on the stiff side. Fully laden, it’s slower but rides more smoothly. Either way, on twisty roads it’s the least “truck-y” pickup Ford sells by far—which is one of its most appealing features.
Towing Tech
Two new tech options should let Maverick owners maneuver and hitch their trailers with less hassle. The Pro Trailer Hitch Assist uses rear corner radars and a camera to align the trailer coupler (once raised to a suitable height) with the truck’s tow ball. While such features have been offered on full-size pickups from Ford, GM, and others, the Maverick is the smallest truck to offer them. Once activated, the system identifies the trailer’s extremities, then controls the truck’s steering, braking, and reversing speed to position the coupler over the hitch ball. We tested it; it worked remarkably well.
The Pro Trailer Backup Assist lets owners reverse their truck and attach a trailer by simply turning a knob to indicate which direction the trailer should go while reversing the combination. This is often among the hardest trailering skills for novices to learn; this system, Ford suggests, should make that task easier. WIRED still parked the trailer atop a couple of cones on our first try, but with practice it should get significantly more natural.
Regrettably, we weren’t able to test the towing performance of the Maverick Hybrid AWD in real-world circumstances (unlike the 2022 launch event which included towing segments). We look forward to doing so once we get a test vehicle for longer than several hours.
For this year at least, the 4K Towing option is available on the AWD Maverick Hybrid only in its top trim level, known as Lariat. The Pro Trailer Hitch Assist and Backup Assist functions are standard on the Lariat version.
It’ll Cost Ya
Unfortunately, Maverick prices have risen significantly in its fourth year. In 2022, the entry-level Maverick carried a base price under $21,500—meaning dealers often added significant markups due to limited production capacity for a red-hot model. Now, the cheapest Maverick is more than $7,000 pricier, at $28,590 including mandatory delivery fee. WIRED’s trial Maverick Hybrid AWD in XLT trim has a MSRP of $36,860, with the color option called Eruption Green.
As mentioned, so popular is the Maverick that the Mexico assembly plant, in Hermosillo, is now running three shifts a day, supplying pickups not just to North America but also to a variety of countries in South America—where it’s essentially a mainstream pickup.
But the US government announced new import tariffs on virtually all imports last week while we were on the drive event. This could add 25 percent to the sticker of every Maverick—though Ford hasn’t done that, at least so far. Instead, the day after the announcement, Ford said it would extend “employee pricing” (a special discounted rate usually offered to company employees and their families) to virtually every Ford buyer.
