Lucas Bell 
Ever since the Ford Bronco made its return to the off-road segment earlier this summer, fans of the beloved nameplate have been clamoring about the possibility of a Raptor model. However, there’s been rumors floating around that suggest that a hardcore Bronco model may not carry that name at all. Thanks to a September 9th trademark filing with the USPTO, we know that Ford has earmarked the Warthog nameplate. Could this spell the introduction of the Bronco Warthog, or does Ford have something else planned entirely?
The folks over at the RevMatchTV YouTube channel have stated that their sources confirmed the existence of the Bronco Warthog long before the new SUV lineup even debuted in July. Their reporting suggested that the Raptor name will be ditched in favor of the new nameplate, and that the hardcore SUV will feature the 3.0L EcoBoost V6 engine. Currently found in the Explorer ST, the engine could be good for 400 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque in this application.
This Bronco Warthog plan initially seemed like a possibility, but then a Ford engineer took to LinkedIn to state they were working on the 2023 Bronco Raptor. While by no means a form of official confirmation, it does seem unlikely that an engineer made up a project for their LinkedIn page. That is unless they wanted to muddy the waters here even further.
At Ford’s Bronco Day event, we got to interact with a rather beefy looking Ford Bronco. While the Blue Oval stated that the truck was there to show off some of the accessories coming to the Bronco, we believed that the SUV concept was actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At the time we suggested that the lifted Bronco with unique fenders could be a Raptor in disguise, but maybe it was the Bronco Warthog making an early appearance. The two-inch suspension lift and 37-inch tires found on this particular Bronco Day concept were both rumored to be Warthog features, which only makes us wonder even more.
While we’ll have to wait and see what comes of this recent USPTO filing, there’s no denying that we will be getting a serious performance minded Bronco in the future. We’re not sure that fans and buyers alike are going to care what animal’s name Ford throws on the thing, extinct or not.
