A few months ago, the world started seeing reports showing prototype photos of a new Ford Bronco meant for China. The vehicle looked somewhat like a Bronco Sport, but something was off — it looked a bit bigger, and there clearly was something different going on with the powertrain. Now we know what that car was — this new Electric/EREV Ford Bronco, a vehicle that I think would be awesome for the U.S. market.
I’m not saying this thing would sell well, I’m just saying it would be awesome, as EREVs are the best one-car solution for folks who can charge at home or at work. They don’t take up a ton of battery resources, they allow you to daily-drive on electricity alone, but they let you handle your edge cases with a compact internal combustion engine instead of a giant, heavy, expensive extra 50+ kWh worth of battery.
But I’ve already preached the gospel of EREVs (I daily-drive one myself), so let’s get onto the details of China’s new Ford Bronco, which come to us courtesy of our beloved China-expert-contributor, Tycho De Feijter, who got this info from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s filings.
Let’s start by checking out the exterior, which looks… like a Ford Bronco Sport up front:
Here’s what the current U.S.-spec Bronco Sport looks like, for reference.
Styling is similar, and yet distinct, and though it’s hard to get an understanding of the scale, I get the impression that China’s Bronco may be a bit larger. Let’s have a look out back:
The back is very cool, because it actually looks less like the rear of a Bronco Sport…
…and more like the backside of the big body-on-frame Bronco we get stateside:
As for the specs, we’re going to quote Tycho’s tweet here:
he Ford Bronco is made in China by Jiangling (JMC) -Ford. Until now, it was an ICE-only car. But no more. Soon, Ford will add two new versions to the Bronco line-up: an EV and an EREV. The EV gets an AWD power train with a 130 kW motor at the front and a 202 kW motor at the rear. The top speed is 170 km/h. The LFP Blade battery is sourced from BYD Findreams. It has a 650-kilometer range. The EREV gets a 110 kW 1.5 turbo liter range extender + two electric motors: 130 kW front and 180 kW rear. The LFP battery comes from BYD Findreams again. EV range is 220 km and combined range is 1220 km. The top speed is also 170 km/h.
Tycho also mentions a new ADAS system with LIDAR above the windshield and sensors on the fenders.
Tycho mentions that the new Bronco should hit the Chinese market later this year.
Overall, I love the idea. 135 miles of all-electric range, and when that runs out, a little 1.5-liter turbo range extender cuts on so you can drive to Yellowstone or Mt. Rushmore for your annual family vacation — it’s fantastic. I’ll be curious to see what this thing costs, and what the delta is between the 400-mile EV and the 135-mile EREV.
All Images: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology/Ford
Why don’t we have more EREVs? My overly simplistic answer is, Elon Musky. Tax credits should have been available for them, but alas, Musky. He successfully suckered two parties into believing his hype. Now China is in the lead. Asshole.
EREVs were / are eligible for federal EV tax credits
I thought the ARRA gave larger credits to EVs? As always, I could be and am often dead wrong (approximately a 49.9999% personal error rate). I should have mentioned Carbon Credits as well since I was thinking of those too. Thank you for correcting me. Seriously! 🙂
May I offer you some sketchy investment advice?
Both PHEVs and BEVs can get the full federal $7500 tax credit. PHEVs depends on battery size but it only took a 17 kWh battery to max out the credit.
For CARB ZEV credits under Advanced Clean Car II a PHEV can get 1 ZEV credit. A BEV gets 4.
For carbon or GHG credits it is just the difference between the rated fuel economy of the vehicle type and footprint vs the certified fuel economy.
One has to imagine this is the next-gen Bronco Sport
The biggest automotive policy failure of the last 20 years was the decision to prevent EREVs with more gas range than electric from being able to participate in the EV tax credit.
EREVs are the perfect powertrain choice for a huge cross-section of the market. They would have allowed a ton of people to be able to run 100% EV most of the time AND now have to worry about charging infrastructure for long trips by having massive electric/gas combination (and still efficient!) range.
Maybe a tiny silver lining with the death of the EV tax credit will be a pivot to this type of technology to supplant hybrids.
I still think EVs are great technology, but it will be a very long time before they become the vehicle of choice for everyone, and EREVs will be able to bend the greenhouse gas emissions curve faster and cheaper.
That was a CARB decision not a federal and one that they changed for Advanced Clean Cars II.
Yeah I got a federal “EV tax credit” for our PHEV and they did get CARB credits, just not as many as when you handicap the vehicle with a crappy range extender and prevent the use of the full tank capacity. Of course BMW knew they were going to struggle to get enough credits so they needed to maximize what they did have.
I’ve been wanting a full size Bronco, but I’m not buying an ICAE only vehicle again. Mild hybrid/EREV/EV would be OK, but just plain ICE seems like a relic.
You know what else is a relic? Water, why are people still drinking that?
I, too, prefer Brawndo.
It’s got what plants crave
Driving to Yellowstone or Mt. Rushmore for your annual family vacation from China?? Wow, this thing must have a ton of range.
gimme
Friendly reminder that if you’re referencing EVs but do not explain EV acronyms in the body of the article itself, you deserve to have 1,000 AAA batteries repeatedly yet gently thrown at you throughout your entire workday
that’s a lot of batteries, my guy
Free back massage!
Repeatedly yet gently thrown does not define a battery. But you are describing battery.
That BYD sourced battery might be a big reason why. I’m sure they are getting a sweetheart deal on those from BYD. And good luck finding a US or allied alternative at that price point.
CATL and BYD can charge slightly more than other Chinese competitors these days, but they’ll help engineer the pack for you. And yes, there’s little US or allied alternative for LFP batteries since basically no one outside China makes them in volume, so we’re stuck with expensive cobalt containing NMC batteries.
Ford is partnering with CATL on a new a battery factory in Marshall, Michigan. It is scheduling to start production in 2026.
We already have a China Bronco at home.
The China Bronco at home.
Yeah, but it’s a Stellantis product, so I have to figure they will screw this thing up.
Feels like Ford’s answer to the Jeep Avenger.
Can we add this EREV powertrain to a Maverick please??
Sure, they’ll add it for the next redesign in 2028 and starting price will only be $42k by then for a base model with steelies.
But it won’t actually be available so get the fully loaded version for $57k.
They will make exactly three of them so expect some market adjustment and $2k worth of nitrogen and glass etching.
I love it. I cannot wait for an EREV when my wrangler rusts away.
Honestly the Wrangler 4xE should have been an EREV from the beginning.
Only Jason will appreciate this, but since EREV is the Hebrew term for the night before something, usually used to talk about the night before a Jewish holiday, it would be hilarious to Jews if the trim levels were named after Jewish holidays. So we had a Bronco Erev Rosh Hashanah (for the first edition) or a Bronco Erev Sukkot (for the topless version) or a Bronco Erev Yom Kippur (for the fast version) or a Bronco Ever Pesach (for the Gluten-free edition)
I started to read that with Mel Brooks’ voice in my head…
Sorry, I’m busy pining for the Taurus that Ford makes for the Middle East.
I like to think that it was designed with global safety standards in mind and could be ported over with Fusion badges and US-friendly production somewhere. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse though…
C-NCAP is as strict or stricter than Euro NCAP these days.
I’m convinced the Chinese market Ford Evos (a not-ugly hatchback) is the Ford Fusion Active that Farley promised us here in the States in 2017, before the first round of tariffs made that a nonstarter.
Yes it is/was.
Thank you – glad to know, finally.
And though I’m not wild about the lack of buttons, the Evos does also show that Ford can do full-screen dashes pretty well for non-luxury (i.e. not just Lincoln) products.
Maybe I’m reading this and the links too quickly or we just don’t know yet, but is it the same bones as the Bronco Sport/C2-derived? Or is it a different partnership that has Bronco styling draped over it?
I’m 99% certain it is an entirely different (China only) platform.
With the Bronco Sport’s platform-mate Kuga/Escape ending production after MY25 (scheduled by EOY 2025) I wonder if the Bronco Sport (US) is long for this world. They could do a captive import situation or just build it here. Depends on how much IP JMC has.
The Escape is being canceled in favor of the Bronco Sport because it is a ‘fun’ vehicle while the Escape isn’t, and is part of Ford’s branding shift. It’s also not great for economies of scale to have 2 different cars occupy basically the same segment. Keep in mond this is also the Maverick platform.
I think the Bronco Sport is crushing the Escape in sales, too. Just wish they would make a BS PHEV, as I probably would have bought it over the Escape PHEV I bought. The BS looks better, IMHO, although the Escape looks pretty good, too.
The Bronco Sport sells less than the Escape. For the full year 24 it was 124k BS, 147k Escape. In 23 it was 127k BS, 140K Escape.
So yeah the Escape was their 4th best selling vehicle behind the LD F-Series, Explorer and Transit.
Why does the generator need a turbo? Is that just for packaging to keep it small?
Gotta be about HP/kg.
China has a displacement tax with thresholds at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, etc liters so if you want something with ~150-180hp you choose a 1.5T with 1% tax instead of a 2.5L N/A with 4-7% tax (I forgot the exact numbers). It means that basically all Chinese NEVs only come with 3 engines ever: a 1.5L N/A, 1.5T, and 2.0T, with the first 2 often in Atkinson/Miller cycle.
Was going to ask the same thing, but the answers have just left me with more questions.
This is excellent, and exactly the kind of stuff I wish North America had.
You’ll get more 6,000 pound trucks and you’ll like it, mister!
*6000 pound TOWING CAPACITY EREV trucks is what I want. They just need to modify the brief slightly.
I didn’t see, how much does this new bronco in the article weigh? Do you think its light?
Maybe this will be a refreshed model for the US market at some point? Not the powertrain but the wider stance and headlights/tailight combo. Looks very good, this and the Equinox PHEV available in China could be a hit if they come to the US market. The tax credit will be gone soon, whats stopping automakers to start sourcing more components like batteries and stuff from China?
Tariffs from the demented orange paint smear. That would kill the cost advantage.
We’ll gladly take em here in the Canadian market, though!
It uses BYD batteries which means they’re LFP. LFP performs badly in cold weather, making the EV version unviable, but the EREV could manage. However, there’s very little LFP production in the US until the controversial Ford-CATL plant in Northern LP Michigan comes online, and importing would incur high tariffs if produced in the US.
FWIW Chevy seems to be quietly pulling out of China right now, and the Equinox PHEV has sold well under 1000 units in its lifetime. Again due to tariffs and lack of supply chain, the PHEV version in the US would be much more expensive.
I am not interested in owning a Bronco sport, but I would absolutely consider one of these if they were sold here. I currently daily an EV but keep an ICE vehicle for longer trips. It would be nice to consolidate my daily drivers into a single vehicle to save money on insurance and free up space in the garage.
So far, I have been thoroughly underwhelmed by the PHEVs/EREVs for sale in the US. Most are vehicles I wouldn’t give a second glance at in ICE form (Prius prime [or whatever it is currently called], the numerous generic crossover PHEVs, etc.), are cool vehicles that are poorly executed (Wrangler 4xe – reviews are abysmal and range/mpg are underwhelming), or are more money than I am willing to spend on a daily driver (E53 AMG). The Bronco sport isn’t my favorite vehicle, but it would be interesting enough to warrant consideration in EREV form, assuming it is well executed.
LOL 2 different cars with the same name. Ford also does this with the US Explorer (vs the Euro-market Explorer EV which is rebadged VW), and of course, GM’s Blazer/Blazer EV being totally different cars.
Ford should sell the Everest/Territory over here
Honda and Toyota have had their share of it too, like Corollas and Camrys with narrow and wide bodies, Accord being up to 3 different models (6th gen). Nowadays the different HR-Vs are probably the most prominent example, with both sold together in some places and our version bearing ZR-V badges. And though different brands, the Chinese Honda Integra is a Civic with different fasciae rather than outright restyled like the Acura.
I guess I’ve grown up in a time where the Chinese OEMS were doing blatant copies of other OEM’s designs. The blatant copies were always…just a little off. A bit unsettling. They’ve done it again. It is a blatant copy of the US Bronco(s), but looks off. Add in the awkward powertrain, and I am 0% interested. Pass.
It’s made by Ford
American style to Chinese tastes. It’s just…unsettling.
imagine being unsettled for something that you haven’t seen in person nor it’s being sold here…
I’m sure they have a factory 50 km away that’ll make the same vehicle under a Chinese name.
Yes, the Ford Bronco has been blatantly copied by… *checks notes* Ford.
135 miles seems waaaaay over the top for an EREV
I think it’s perfect. (That’s the same as my i3!)
The median commute is something like 12-15 miles, so 135mi is just about a full week of commuting without ever plugging in.
True, but low-range PHEVs don’t get plugged in/taken seriously.
I think for a bigger car maybe 80-100 would be fine. I love that my i3 has 135 miles of range; in fact, I spent quite a bit of extra money for those extra 30-ish miles over the 105–ish-mile 2017-2018 i3.
The big thing is: Keep the battery small/prices lower(er). My i3’s 40 kWh is awesome; it works for a weekend full of cross-town trips.
They make sense in one use case: the family minivan that does short runs to school and the shops 90% of the time. The other 10% is a “road trip” where a big ICE comes in handy.
I suppose in a perfect world, we would have varying degrees of balance across various models so we could choose one that fits our personal use case perfectly.
I agree!
We had a low range PHEV (2022 KIA Niro PHEV = @35 miles EV only) and plugged it in every night for the 3 year lease. This worked fine with a standard house outlet, as overnight was a full charge. Great car with the one exception that the acceleration performance was weak compared to the full EV Niro.
I don’t know if I like that “not taken seriously” argument. Not really the cars fault if people aren’t educated properly.
I plug in my Escape PHEV every night, and I drive is 150 miles + every day at work, gives me almost an extra day of use on my tank of fuel (it jumps it from just under 400 miles on a tank to 500 miles on a tank.)
I think I’ve said this before but the underlying study all that data is based on is… well, it is influenced by the fact that the PHEV market in the UK is distorted by the company car schemes, which allow people to lease a much more expensive PHEV.
That means that the population surveyed are much less likely to have chosen a PHEV for the fuel benefits (and are commensurately less likely to get plugged in).
But I agree, the long-range PHEV is dramatically superior for everyday use. A 25-30mi PHEV will often drop into ICE mode, while a 100mi one will effectively never run the ICE except for deep cold, to relubricate the engine, or on the infrequent road trips.
See my replies above for some data from the US and the UK that isn’t heavily distorted by the gov’t creating an incentive to purchase PHEVs that won’t ever be plugged in.
You need to stop with the low range PHEVs don’t get plugged in trope.
Much of that comes from the euro study where tax credits were given to PHEV company cars. The problem was that there was a disincentive to plugging them in. If plugged in at home it came out of the driver’s electric bill, while the company gas card didn’t. With no incentives to install work place chargers, very few if any were installed and the vehicles simply didn’t get plugged in.
The other is the fact that for a while dealers could only order 4xe’s in CARB states so anyone that wanted to drive home today purchased one whether they had a place to charge it or not. I am certain more than one salesman told a prospect who was resistant to the plug that “You NEVER have to plug it in, it will just operate like a hybrid”.
Here are some results, including owners who actually made a choice to purchase a “low-range PHEV” for themselves.
https://www.torquenews.com/1083/plug-hybrid-electric-vehicle-owners-plug-them-most-days-heres-how-we-know
Ford’s actual vehicle usage data, the author’s polls and 2 different JD Power studies came to the same conclusion, that in the US plugging in PHEVs daily is the norm.
There are some people that go places other than directly to work and home again who wouldn’t want to recharge every day. Crazy talk I know, but I’ve seen it first hand.
I guess I lean more into the Volt world of EREVS (I’m biased of course). 50+ miles with a relatively small 18kwh battery meets the VAST majority of peoples needs. A 25kwh battery with todays tech and efficiency would go a long way.
Agreed, honestly. 60-100 miles is probably a good sweet-spot for range on an EREV if you’re trying to keep the price and weight down. So long as the genset has sufficient power to cruise at highways speeds at full weight capacity (towing/payload).
No, it doesn’t need to pull grades full tilt on gen power only. It just needs to have enough for average highway cruising while gaining battery charge at a reasonable pace, so that the batt charge is there for the occasional heavy draw.
I like the fact that I could get by home charging it every 4 days or so…so that would be nice.
And what’s really great is the extended range is 750 miles. It basically means you could road trip for almost 11 hours a day without stopping for gas (although my bladder and stomach may protest that strategy).
Agreed, but if you do return home after commuting every day, which I would guess the vast majority of people do, why not just plug it in? The smaller the pack, the fewer the resources, and the smaller the weight that has to get hauled around.
My understanding, which could be completely incorrect, is that it’s not good for the battery to only have such a small discharge everyday. I’ve read that with car batteries the ideal is to keep them between 20% and 80%. Again though, that could be incorrect, or based on old data.
Yes charging above 80% isn’t great so yeah only charge it to that as the norm and use the app to bump up the charge if needed on a given day.
This is the minimum range I would accept for an EREV. My commute is 70 miles round trip over a mountain pass and I often have a bike on a hitch rack. 135 would get me through my commute without gas even in the winter.
That’s not really the typical commute though, right? Making the majority of your commute with EV, or at least one way would still significantly reduce the amount of gas you’re burning.
It’s a pretty common type of commute in the area I live in. A lot of rural communities have long and highway commutes that make EVs a marginal proposition. I have an EV and a gas vehicle, and around 140 miles is what I would want to consolidate those two.
I agree, this would be the rural people’s needed PHEV. I would actually want 150 of EV (an average day of work for me), and then maybe 250-300 able to be added by gas power. This would give a total range of 400-450 miles and would let the gas tank be smaller. Yes, on a long trip it would be slightly more refueling than a bigger gas tank, but the weight savings will probably make it worthwhile.
There are a lot of EVs that would cover that if you’re open to em. A good rule of thumb for worst case (deep winter, highway, uphill with a headwind) is 60% the EPA rating, so anything with a 240 mile range should be good enough. The base equinox EV is 314 epa miles now, I think.
I did about two years EV only, but there are a lot of places in Appalachia that I want to go that I can get to, but not back from, with charging infrastructure as it is. Carrying bikes at highway speeds is murder on range. That’s why I also have an old gasser that I only drive every couple of weeks.
This Bronco, or (hopefully) the Scout would cover all my use cases. Otherwise I will continue with my virtual EREV.
I should have clarified: It’s not the typical average commute. I also live in a very rural area, and while my commute is comparably short (45 miles round trip), it’s also the reason why I bought a Volt vs a full EV.
Keep in mind that it’s the low speed CLTC cycle in a car with terrible aero, so it’d be more like 80mi EPA which quickly drops at higher speeds, like 50mi at 75mph. It is enough to cover common scenarios like heading dowtown after returning home from work without having to run the engine.
Good point! Just for kicks and gigs, I looked up what my car was rated for the Chinese market (2nd Gen Volt, called Buick Velite 5 in China) and they rated it at 72 miles. Noooooo way, unless in the most perfect low speed conditions would I get 72 miles.
I have an older i3 with ~75 miles of range which is fine in the summer but just a little too little in the winter. 135 seems like enough to ensure that a long commute doesn’t run down the battery even in the winter.
i3’s are sort of weird though, if I understand correctly you can’t just keep driving after the battery is flat, right? Or at least not for unlimited miles after battery pack discharge.
No, it’s just like a Chevy Volt, you can keep driving with a flat battery. If you floor the throttle at highway speeds before the REX is warmed up while the high voltage battery is low it’ll complain, but I’ve done 200 mile road trips in mine.
The ICE will rot away from disuse.
Eh, they’ve got that figured out. Volts will run their engine if it hasn’t been run in a certain period of time. I make a point of doing one leg of my commute once a week on the ICE.
It is, specifically 2-3 times larger than it should be. The avg American drives about 13,500 mi per year or an average of 37 miles per day. The average daily commute is much lower than that.
Here is some real world data and it isn’t skewed by the “company car” or “this is all we stock” issues that so many others use to show how dirty PHEVs are.
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/gb/en/news/2021/08/05/new-kuga-plug-in-hybrid-data-shows-nearly-half-of-mileage-uses-e.html
~50% of the miles driven were from externally charged electricity. 66% of days were all EV. The vehicles were charged ~90% of drive days. The average daily distance traveled was 32 mi.
Add all that together and you can see that a portion of that likely came from longer road trips. That of course makes sense that a person that does a fair amount of distance driving would choose a PHEV over an EV.
So just doubling the battery size and thus range wouldn’t go very far increasing the percentage of EV miles, nor the number of EV only days.
Much better use of resources to build 4 ~35 mi PHEVs and have four people doing 50% of their miles in EV mode than one person doing 60%, 75% or even 90% EV only.
Looks better than a Bronco Sport
Rear door spare tire carrier
PHEV/EREV
Yeah…Ford needs to sell this in the U.S., like now.
WANT