Make no mistake, Ford’s upcoming body-on-frame Bronco SUV is currently super hot. No, fury-of-a-thousand-suns is hot, but people are still wondering if they will enjoy some sweet, direct electric couple in their Bronco on the track or if they should bail on the Blue Oval and the Jeep Wrangler 4xe.
According to a report published Wednesday by The Fast Lane Car, they would probably not have to cancel their reservations yet. See, an unnamed source close to the Bronco project confirmed that the Bronco Hybrid would likely use the same electrified modular transmission used on the F-150 and Explorer the hybrid.
Here’s why that’s cool. Because the hybrid bits are in transmission, the people at Ford can place it behind just about any engine they want. So it’s likely we’ll see the hybrid 10-speed paired with a V6 EcoBoost engine as some variant of it. The Fast Lane predicts that combination (if any) would be good for up to 450 horsepower, and they are Raptor-like numbers, friend. Torque production is advisable to anyone, but a similar system in the Lincoln Aviator hybrid pulls out 415 pound-feet, so we’d expect it to live in that ballpark.
Now, there’s probably a catch that could put a damper on all this good news, and that is that the Bronco Hybrid is likely to be delayed – again according to the unnamed source from TFLC – by at least 2022. Because it seems that the American people, after all, are not the most patient people on Earth, we think this will be enough to kick some people back to team Jeep, but those who are patient will probably be rewarded with something great.
Ford declined to comment further.
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