Maverick Fanbase Grows; Sales Double as Ford Expands Production

In 32 years of driving, Jay Whitehurst has never owned a truck. He’s also never owned a Ford.

But after moving from New Orleans to a hay farm in rural Mississippi, lugging cans of diesel for farm equipment and animal food in the back of his Kia Soul just wasn’t going to cut it. That’s when someone told him about the Ford Maverick.

“I didn’t want a big truck,” said Whitehurst, who works in radio broadcasting. “When the Maverick came out, I salivated. I test drove a 2022 model year and walked away thinking, ‘Yeah, I think this is the truck for me.’”

Whitehurst is one of thousands of customers who got their Maverick trucks faster thanks to expanded production capacity installed in late 2023. This expanded capacity helped increase U.S. sales to 12,443 in January, up nearly double compared to the same month a year ago. January sales even topped that of the larger Toyota Tacoma.

Timothy Bruggeman of Shawnee, Kansas, picked up his Ford Maverick Hybrid late last year – his second Maverick. He saw smaller pickups and even test-drove a Maverick while living in Brazil for his job as a power-plant engineer in 2022. When he returned to the states, he found a Maverick XLT at his local dealership to hold him over until his hybrid model was manufactured.

“It’s got the truck functionality I need but drives like a car,” said Bruggeman, who never owned a truck before Maverick.

He said he uses his truck for runs to the hardware store for lumber or mulch in the spring, and also tosses his clay target equipment in the bed before heading to the range. His most unique-use case happened last Labor Day, when he put a blow-up mattress in the bed so he had a place to relax while participating in the world’s longest baseball game.

Brian Foster of Irvine, California, already had a 2023 Maverick XLT – now retrofitted with a midrise shell, seat covers and an aftermarket stereo system – when he ordered a 2024 Maverick XL Hybrid for his son, who fell in love after borrowing dad’s Maverick for four months. Production for that truck is not yet scheduled, though the two found a truck in stock at Long McArthur Ford in Salina, Kansas, flew out and made the 1,400-mile trip back to California.

Foster said the 2024 Maverick XL Hybrid will likely go to his daughter after it is manufactured.

Foster also noted his trust in the hybrid model based on Ford’s history with that technology, which dates back to the world’s first hybrid SUV in 2005.

“My parents owned hybrid Ford vehicles since they were first introduced,” Foster said. “I think the hybrid drivetrain that's been well proven paired with a truck is brilliant.”