Ford Bronco Basecamp is coming to Australia and New Zealand in the second half of 2027, and its clever little 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine never drives the wheels.
The laudable Bronco is more than 60 years old and has never had a plug, until now. The pretty little Ford Bronco Basecamp is the first electrified one, and it comes in the least Bronco shape you could sketch. Instead of a ladder frame, it’s a monocoque, the same construction as a family SUV. there are really cool things like a roof that lifts on a switch and an interior that folds flat into a bed. Built, in other words, for people who want to sleep at the trailhead rather than climb over it. Like most SUVs, this is the way it is used, that and grocery shopping.
Local deliveries start in the second half of 2027 and the Ford Bronco Basecamp interest register is open now. Ford looked at the national parks and coastal trails here, added up the distances people cover getting to them, and decided this one fit while still being a fashion accessory. We’ve covered a camping-flavoured Bronco before, when the Bronco Overland concept came through, and the local off-road bench already has the Everest Wildtrak on it. Depending on the price, it might give Chinese rivals a run for their cash, but I doubt it.
Like most legacy car makers, Ford is in a spot of strife. The Chinese car market is in the woes, so China is turning up the ratchet on exports, and they’re doing it with price. In short, old mastheads can’t compete. Will this one be a bright light for the US?
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ABOVE: Bronco Basecamp
Ford Bronco Basecamp Power and Drive
Dual electric motors are fed by a usable 49kWh battery. The 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine acts only as a generator. It has no mechanical link to the wheels, so it tops up the battery. The estimated range is 800km to 900km.
A range extender isn’t a plug-in hybrid in the way most people here use the phrase. In a plug-in hybrid the petrol engine eventually takes over and drives the car directly. In this one it can’t, ever. Every kilometre travelled is an electric kilometre, whether the electricity came out of a wall socket or out of a tank of unleaded. Although the driveline isn’t unique, Bronco Basecamp remains as an SUV sold here to sleep in.
On distance driving, a battery-only SUV can go anywhere but depends on a charger being there and being switched on when you get to it. Ford Bronco Basecamp brings its own power station, albeit at the expense of burning petrol to make the electricity in the first place. The 49kWh battery is small by touring-EV standards, but plenty when there is on-board charging.
Then we move to the construction. A ladder frame provides heavy towing and axle articulation. A monocoque is what you build when the priority is a quiet, sealed, weatherproof box that people will spend a night inside. Ford already has a bunch of those, so picked the second one to suit a majority of shoppers.
Ford Bronco Basecamp’s Pop-Up Roof and Kitchen in the Swing Gate
The Electric Pop-Up Lift Roof is an Outer Banks item only. It raises the interior headroom and opens the cabin out, which is the difference between changing your clothes on your knees and standing up like a grown adult. The interior converts into a sleeping space, and the full-length mattress is custom-fit and inflatable. It’s an accessory at extra cost, but is something worth buying.
Outer Banks also gets a 7.5-litre warm and cool storage console built into the centre console. Milk stays cold, or dinner stays warm, depending which way you set it. The Wild Kitchen is built into the rear swing gate and has a fold-down table, and it draws from Pro Power Onboard.
Pro Power Onboard supplies up to 6.6kW. You can plug in induction cooktops, coffee machines, camp lights, laptops, photography gear, in fact, anything with an appliance plug. 6.6kW is household-socket territory so cooking off-piste means no gas bottle rattling, no separate battery box eating the boot, and no inconvenience. Even in this camping mode, the petrol engine refills the battery when it drops below “oh my god” level.
Ford Bronco Basecamp Pricing and Specification
Price and specification will come closer to launch in the second half of 2027, along with the grade line-up and availability.
Ford Bronco Basecamp targets the outdoorsy active types, which is a narrower audience than most SUV marketing will admit to chasing. Ambrose Henderson, Ford’s marketing director, put it plainly. “Outdoor life here isn’t a trend, it’s just life. Bronco Basecamp was almost purpose-built for these customers.” Sadly, it is usually more aspiration than reality.
Now that Australia’s car market has started to mature, it was 46% electrified in May, so a Bronco with a plug in it meets a very different showroom to the one that would’ve greeted it in 2022. Ford Bronco Basecamp deliveries begin in the second half of 2027.
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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