Leaked photos show 2020 Ford “baby Bronco”

Ford has been busy planning an “onslaught” of new product starting in 2020, but the upcoming Bronco is the most hotly awaited Ford since the redesigned Mustang arrived for 2005. So naturally, the car internet is going wild today at what first glance looks like the retro-inspired 4×4 SUV. The 4×4 in question is almost definitely not the Bronco, though, but rather a smaller SUV that Ford announced back in March as a “yet-to-be-named off-road small utility.”

Off-road.com was first to post photo of this “baby Bronco” from an October dealer meeting in Las Vegas. The Detroit News reports that at the meeting, dealers drove the 2019 Ford Ranger pickup and “saw the new rear-wheel drive Explorer, redesigned Escape, as-yet-unnamed 2020 battery electric vehicle, an unnamed small ‘rugged’ SUV some call the baby Bronco, and the Mustang GT 500.”

But if you look at the image in the middle of the stage, the outline of the larger, more boxy Bronco is clearly visible behind the vehicle pictured. And based on Ford’s earlier teasers and renderings, the “yet-to-be-named small off-road utility” clearly lines up with the photos shown at the dealer meeting, while the Bronco teaser of the vehicle under a sheet had a tailgate-mounted spare tire and is plainly larger and more squared-off.

Adding these two rugged SUVs to the lineup alongside the F-150 Raptor, Ford’s goal is to stake its claim as the brand off-road enthusiasts will flock to, hoping to kick Jeep off its long-held pedestal. “Now we’re ready to reclaim our rightful place as the off-road vehicle leader,” Jim Farley, Ford president of global markets, said in a statement. But based on these images, the smaller 4×4 shown here is more of a Renegade Trailhawk competitor—Wrangler fighting will be the Bronco’s job.

The “baby Bronco”—whatever is it ultimately called—will be sold alongside, rather than in place of, the Escape. It’ll ostensibly be much more off-road-focused, letting the Escape take care of more mainstream customers. Ford has yet to announce when this new SUV is planned to go on sale.