Ford Built Your Dream Electric SUV, But You Can’t Have It
Image Credit: Ford JMC.
Car manufacturers… What a bunch of wild people. Sometimes, they create legends without any effort, cars that shape our lives, and cars that we dream of. Other times, they create absolute lemons and try to tell us they are the bees' knees, only to eventually admit we were right not to buy them in the first place. But on those very rare occasions, a car manufacturer does something so blindingly obvious and clever that I have to stand up and applaud. And then, they do it on the other side of the world, just to taunt me.
Image Credit: Ford JMC.
Ford, you magnificent, infuriating company, you've done it again. You've built the electric Ford Bronco we've all been secretly - or not-so-secretly - praying for. In fact, you've built two of them. One is a full-fat, battery-electric beast. The other is a genius-level Extended-Range Electric Vehicle, or EREV. They are real. They look spectacular. And unless you're planning a move to China, you can forget all about owning one. This really feels like finding the love of your life, only to find out they're allergic to freedom, eagles, and oversized soft drinks.
The pure Electric Bronco isn't the rough-and-tumble, rock-crawling Bronco we know and love here in the States. This is its bigger, more sophisticated cousin who went to business school. Ford calls it the "Bronco New Energy," which is a terribly boring name for such an exciting machine. Visually, it's like a Bronco Sport that spent a year on a diet of whey protein and cheeseburgers. It's enormous. At about 198 inches long, it's a full nine inches longer than our four-door Bronco. It's a proper family-sized chariot.
Image Credit: Ford JMC.
Underneath that big body is a truly gargantuan $105.4 kWh battery pack - that's bigger than what you'll find in many top-tier luxury EVs. This electric Bronco is not some half-hearted compliance effort; this is a serious machine. The battery itself uses the LFP "blade" technology from BYD, the same folks who supply batteries for Teslas built in Shanghai. So, you know the pedigree is sound. That massive battery powers two motors - a 175-horsepower unit for the front wheels and a gutsier 270-horsepower motor for the rear, giving it all-wheel drive and a combined output of 445 very eager horses.
Ford claims this setup will give the Bronco EV a range of just over 400 miles on the Chinese testing cycle. Now, we all know those official figures can be a bit optimistic. They're usually calculated by a man in a lab coat, on a perfect day, going downhill with a tailwind. Still, even if you knock a hundred or so miles off for real-world shenanigans like turning on the air conditioning or driving faster than a bicycle, you're still left with a seriously usable range. And with a curb weight of a dainty 5,800 pounds, it's a good thing that the battery is so large.
Image Credit: Ford JMC.
But if the full EV isn't your cup of tea, Ford is also offering an EREV version. This, to me, is the showstopper. It has a smaller - but still decent - 43.7 kWh battery. That battery alone is bigger than what you'd find in a first-generation Nissan Leaf or a Mini Cooper SE. It's good for over 130 miles of pure electric driving. For most people, that covers the daily commute, the school run, and the trip to the grocery store for an entire week, without ever waking up the gasoline engine.
But when you need to go further, oh boy, does it go further. Tucked away somewhere is a tiny, 1.5-liter turbocharged engine. But it never drives the wheels. It's not a hybrid. It's an onboard power generator. A get-out-of-jail-free card for range anxiety. When the battery gets low, the little engine quietly fires up and acts as a power station, sending electricity to the motors and keeping you going. The result? A combined gas-and-electric range of nearly 750 miles. That's New York to Detroit on a single go. Bonkers.
Image Credit: MIIT China.
This EREV model is slightly lighter, tipping the scales at a more svelte 5,500 pounds. It's the perfect solution for someone who wants to drive electric 99% of the time but needs the absolute freedom to take a spontaneous, cross-country road trip without meticulously planning every charging stop. It's the best of both worlds, and I'm genuinely furious that we don't have it.
To add insult to injury, these Chinese-market Broncos seem to be packed with forward-thinking tech. Photos from the government homologation process show a new sensor cluster at the top of the windshield that appears to house LiDAR. This hints at a seriously advanced driver-assistance system, possibly the Level 3 autonomous tech Ford has been whispering about. It makes perfect sense to launch your most advanced self-driving features on your shiniest new EV in a tech-hungry market like China.
Image Credit: MIIT China.
So, why? Why is Ford keeping this masterpiece of practical electrification from us? The official line is that it was developed by Jiangling Ford specifically for the Chinese market. It's more of an on-road SUV than a dedicated off-roader. Well, guess what? People in America buy those, too! A three-row, 400-mile electric SUV with a Bronco badge would sell like hotcakes. The EREV version would be perfect for anyone still hesitant about making the electric leap.
For now, we're left to stare at the pictures and wonder what could have been. Ford has said it plans to bring extended-range EVs to the US, but they're at least a couple of years away. I suppose we should be patient. But patience is so hard when you've just seen the perfect vehicle and been told it lives on another continent. So, Ford, if you're listening, please reconsider. The market is ready. My checkbook is ready. Just build it, and we will come.
