2025 Ford Maverick Lobo Revives the Street Truck With Clever Rear Diff, Track-Only Drive Mode

In today’s truck market, almost everything is off-road-focused. Nearly every pickup, SUV, and yes, family crossover either has a rugged-sounding name or at least one four-wheeling-adjacent trim package. That wasn’t always the case as automakers used to cater to go-fast street truck fanatics, too. It’s been more than a decade since we saw a model like that, but Ford just launched the 2025 Maverick Lobo: A truck that’s built for carving up the pavement. It starts at $36,595 including destination, with deliveries beginning early next year.

There will be two option packs for the Lobo, a base and a high-feature. The fully loaded model, which you can order starting today, lists for $42,090 with the destination fee. The $36,000 one will be orderable “late 2024.”

The Maverick Lobo has no desire to get its tires muddy. Instead, it wants to tear up the street and make sure drivers have fun doing it. So despite its 4.5-foot bed, the Lobo’s specs make it seem more like a hot hatchback than a pickup truck. What’s especially cool is that Ford made it by pulling from its performance car parts bin, just like so many Maverick owners have been doing the past few years.

Under the Maverick Lobo’s hood is a 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder that’s largely unchanged from the normal Maverick. I know what you’re thinking, but stick with me. It still makes 238 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque, and it’s proven to be fairly tuneable. It also has a larger radiator as well as a new transmission oil cooler to keep temps down during harder driving. As for the transmission, Ford simply took a gear out of the Maverick’s typical eight-speed gearbox, making it a seven-speed with paddle shifters for some added fun.

The big drivetrain news, though, is the addition of the twin-clutch torque-vectoring rear differential from the Bronco Sport Badlands and Maverick Tremor. In those other cars, the differential helps to add traction in low-grip situations. In the Lobo, though, it’s there to increase cornering capability on dry pavement and ultimately make the street truck more fun to drive. There’s also a Lobo Mode, which is essentially a more playful stability control setting that allows for more slip and uses the rear differential to actually help the Lobo around corners. Engaging it brings up a prompt on the screen, warning that Lobo Mode is for track use only. Let’s see how many customers heed that warning.