A Ford presentation at a dealers meeting in the US recently highlighted an upcoming SUV from the company, and images of these were inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible part of a Ford website, where Off-Road.com found them. In the photo set was what was suggested to be the new Ford Bronco – a slide even carried the nameplate.
As it turns out, the vehicle in the leaked photos – which are no longer accessible – may not be the Bronco itself, but the smaller ‘baby Bronco’ that is also in the pipeline. Back in March, the automaker teased the shape of the Bronco, its outline hidden under a cloth cover. The retro nameplate is expected to be paired with retro styling, with a distinctive boxy design, a tailgate-mounted spare wheel and a choice of three- and five-door models.
The vehicle presented in the slide deck isn’t quite it, visually, and the previously teased Bronco outline sitting in the background as a shadow silhouette further fuels the thought that the SUV in the images is the expected smaller model that will sit below the Bronco in a future line-up.
Back in August, it was reported that the Blue Oval was coming up with a small SUV that will be underpinned and share parts with the fourth-gen Focus as well as the next-gen Escape/Kuga, but with design cues recalling the classic ’60s Bronco. The vehicle in the leaked images looks closer to the teaser image the company released of the small utility vehicle back in March than the shape proposed by the Bronco.
The Bronco, due out in 2020, will be underpinned by the same platform as seen on the Ranger. One of the expected powertrains for the SUV will be the 2.3 litre EcoBoost turbo four-cylinder petrol engine and 10-speed automatic transmission combination used by the US market Ranger as well as on the Mustang.
The new SUV is part of the slew of such offerings the automaker has planned for North America. Ford has announced that it will be phasing out its sedans there because of declining demand for conventional passenger cars, and switch over to offering crossovers.
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