It's no secret Ford has been actively developing a new pickup truck set to be called the Maverick. A debut is expected sometime later this year before it goes on sale as a 2022 model. Why is the Ford Maverick such a big deal? Because Ford is re-entering a segment its chief rivals wrote off long ago, at least for the US market. The Maverick will be classified as a compact truck whereas the Ranger and F-150 are the Blue Oval's mid-size and full-size offerings, respectively.

Compact pickups have remained popular in many overseas markets, specifically Asia and South America and the Maverick's US market arrival could spur GM and Ram to respond.

UPDATE: The pictures obtained via a third party have been removed.

The Maverick will not ride on the Ranger's body-on-frame chassis but rather the same unibody platform underpinning both the Bronco Sport and Escape. That may have alarmed some compact truck enthusiasts at first, but anyone who's seen the Bronco Sport's impressive off-road capabilities thanks to its advanced AWD system should have no reason to fear. We don't know yet whether the Maverick will come standard with AWD but it'll definitely be optional.

Under the hood, there's a good chance the Maverick will share the Bronco Sport's engines as well, the 1.5- and 2.0-liter EcoBoost engines with 181 and 245 horsepower, respectively. The SUV's eight-speed automatic transmission is also expected to be carried over. Pricing should start at around $20,000.