This looks like the very first uncovered photo of the 2021 Ford Bronco. It comes to us from the sixth generation Ford Bronco forum “bronco6g.com,” and though we don’t know much about the picture’s origins, there are a number of reasons to believe that what we see here really is the rear section of Ford’s upcoming off-roader. Let’s take a look.
A Michigan-based forum user named BroncoKong just posted this picture a few hours ago with the thread title “I Saw 2021 Bronco Uncovered!!” The initial post reads: “I saw the four door and two door mid size. ITS EPIC!!! Updated with photo of 4 door Bronco.”
Subsequent posts include “pic I saw there was no roof” and “The WHOOOOLE TOP COMES OFF,” which all sounds fun. BroncoKong lauds the design of The Blue Oval’s upcoming Wrangler-fighter, writing:
yea I saw the two and four door base model but the base for both is crazy!!! We are getting what we want trust me.
And:
If you look closely you will see the bronco on the wheel lmao all I will say is get ready it is everything we want it to be
The user also confirms in that thread that the rear door swings open like that of a Jeep Wrangler, and—to give us an idea of what the full vehicle looks like—they mention that the production car looks rather similar to a rendering from a few years back.
Anyway, while the provenance of this picture is far from clear (it could be Ford’s comms team trying to build hype, for all I know), we do have a number of indicators that point to the vehicle in this photo being the real deal. Here are some of them:
Let’s compare the features pointed out above to those of the four-door Ford Bronco prototype we posted spy photos of back in January. Notice the arch-shaped stop lamp, protruding backup camera, and similar bumper cutout and park sensor location:
You’ll also notice that in the mule above, the license plate is on the driver’s side of the bumper; the leaked photo doesn’t show a license plate mounting point on the passenger’s side, indicating that it’s likely mounted on the driver’s side like on the mule. Also worth noting is that the leaked photo—which appears to have been taken at some sort of Ford engineering facility based on the pipe coming from the exhaust and the “G11300…” sticker similar to that of the prototype above—shows a truck with different tires than the Goodyear Wranglers on the mule. It’s possible the photo posted on the forum shows a more street-oriented trim.
The side spy photo of the prototype Bronco shows the same trapezoidal trim piece at the base of the C-pillar as what’s shown in the leaked photo of the apparent production truck. Plus, the rear part of the prototype’s door rises above the beltline, and it clearly has six-lug wheels and rounded wheel arches, just like what BroncoKong’s thread depicts:
So I think this is probably actually the rear end of the production (or near production) 2021 Ford Bronco. It looks good! Very Wrangler-ish. I can’t wait to see the rest.
March 5, 2020 8:48 P.M. ET: Jalopnik reached out to Ford asking if this leaked photo really shows the new Ford Bronco. A company spokesperson said he could not comment or speculate on the image.
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