Refreshed 2025 Ford Maverick Looks Futuristic Indeed, It's All Wishful Thinking

Back in 2015, Hyundai – which had never sold a pickup truck on the US market – dared to take a leap of faith and introduced the world to the Santa Cruz concept at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It took them a while to ponder if the model could revive the dormant sector, and the production version was introduced in America six years later, in 2021.

By then, though, rivals had already gauged the potential of the reborn compact pickup truck sector, and Ford decided it was worth a shot – so they also brought to life a unibody design based on the Ford Escape and Bronco Sport platform. The Ford Maverick, cheaper and a bit more rugged than the fancy Tucson-based Santa Cruz, was an overwhelming hit with buyers in the region.

During the third quarter of the year alone, Ford's Maverick outsold the Hyundai Santa Cruz by almost 15k units while both posted strong results. That means rivals are even more interested in bringing their models to life in the compact unibody pickup truck field – and the rumor mill is filled with rumors about Ram's decision to bring the Brazilian Rampage to North America or Toyota willing to either resurrect the classic Stout nameplate or bring to market a pickup truck version of the Corolla Cross SUV.

As for the Blue Oval company, we already have confirmation that Ford is soon bringing new versions of the Bronco and Maverick nameplates to market – and our spy photographer partners have already caught the rumored Ford Maverick Lobo during pre-production field tests. However, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is thinking even later into the future about the moment when FoMoCo will inevitably restyle the Maverick when it reaches its mid-cycle threshold.

For example, the good folks from the TheAutoReport channel on YouTube have imagined the potential redesign of the 2025 Ford Maverick with lots of modern AI-assisted CGI cues. The resident pixel master has a variety of interpretations for the mid-cycle facelift, one more futuristic than the other – we could almost draw a parallel between the new trim-based styling separation of the 2024 F-150 and this unofficial design project.

So, what do you think – is the Ford Motor Company going to update the Maverick anytime soon, for the 2025 or 2026 model year, and will they implement drastic changes like in this video? For sure, this could be a solution if the competing automakers reveal their rivals by now. If not, Ford will probably deliver a subtly upgraded Maverick instead of a model with a completely different design that could alienate the brewing fan base.