Our Ford Maverick AWD Hybrid Is Getting 34 MPG

• We bought a Ford Maverick Hybrid with its new all-wheel-drive option.
• Fuel economy is a major consideration factor for this small truck.
• We're seeing 34 mpg as of this writing.

Have there been any trade-offs? Yes and no.

"The hybrid powertrain is really smooth around town," noted Will Kaufman, video manager. "It's not very powerful, and at freeway speeds or when you accelerate hard, it makes a ton of awful noise for not much speed. But if you're cruising or if you're just driving around town, it's actually pretty nice."

Kaufman elaborated, saying our Maverick hybrid "feels pretty strong in normal driving and even feels like it's got juice when you accelerate to pass at freeway speeds. But if you dip the pedal to the floor, you get a lot of noise and not a ton of extra acceleration. That's pretty typical for how power delivery is tuned in mainstream small SUVs, though." Or, in this case, small trucks.

"The other thing is engine braking," Kaufman added. "Because this is a hybrid, you get really strong engine braking. That's great. But when engine braking is high, it's hard to modulate speed. On a low-speed downhill on my commute, the car topped out a couple miles per hour under the speed limit. I tried to use the throttle to get a couple extra mph, but the Maverick had trouble balancing my input with the engine braking, and even slight throttle modulation made the truck jerk and lurch."

Small complaints aside, we're happy with how our Maverick is performing so far. Consider this: The Maverick's chief rival, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, tops out at 24 mpg combined in its most efficient all-wheel-drive trim, so our Ford is doing significantly better by comparison.

Overall, the Maverick's been a great addition to our One-Year Road Test fleet so far. Can it handle proper truck stuff, though? Stay tuned to find out. 

Photos by Keith Buglewicz