Alright, we get it – anything that carries a Ford badge and can go off-road be offered in extreme Raptor trim. You can’t knock the brand- it’s no worse than dodge cramming a Hellcat V-8 into almost anything FCA sells (we’re still waiting on that Pacifica Hellcat, though). So, naturally, before the 2021 Bronco even made its debut, the world was expecting a Raptor version to cross the intersection at one point or another. Obviously, it wasn’t going to happen right away, but new evidence has come to light that says that a Ford Bronco Raptor will launch for the 2023 model year – that means we could see it as soon as mid-2022!

Ford Engineer Spills the Beans on the Ford Bronco Raptor….Kind Of

However, as pointed out by Bronco6G, one Ford employee has spilled the beans on LinkedIn. That employee is an EDS engineer at Ford, and his CV says, “Currently designing EDS system – schematics for 2021 Bronco / 2020 Bronco Raptor, using E3 (Zuken) for schematics that help produce the harness prints.”

So, while it might not be a cold, solid confirmation from Ford, an engineer had absolutely no problem adding that he’s currently working on an EDS system for a 2023 Ford Bronco. If this is, in fact, true, then you can expect the new Bronco Raptor to make its debut sometime in 2022 before going into production and on sale for 2023.

What Will Power the 2023 Ford Bronco Raptor?

As of now, the 2021 Ford Bronco is available with a 2.3-liter four-cylinder that’s good for 270 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque or a 2.7-liter V-6 that’s good for 310 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. These are impressive numbers for a vehicle so small, but Ford has to top those figures to make the Bronco worthy of the Raptor badge. That means we can’t look at the non-U.S.-Spec Ranger Raptor as it’s offered in other markets with a 210-horsepower and 369-pound-foot four-banger diesel engine. That’s not going to work here. And, now that the Ram 1500 TRX is out, it’s been confirmed that Ford is working on cramming the Shelby GTG500’s 700-horsepower V-8 into the next-gen F-150 Raptor. So, Ford does have some options.

The way we see it, this could play out a couple of ways. Ford could simply drop the current 450-horsepower 3.5-liter into the new Ford Bronco. That would give the Bronco Raptor a 140-horsepower advantage over the best Bronco on sale today. But, that might be overkill, as would the GT500’s V-8. So, if anything, chances are Ford will detune the F-150’s 3.5-liter to deliver somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 horsepower. How they can make the Bronco more aggressive or more capable to fit the Raptor’s theme remains to be seen. We assume this will be mainly a power output affair as the new Bronco is beyond capable at its core.

The other option, albeit very unlikely, is that Ford will take a play right out of FCA’s playbook. With the company cramming 700-horsepower hellcat engines into everything it possibly can, The only question is whether or not it will fit. I doubt it will, but these days – a period in which I’m now calling the horsepower war – anything is possible. The good news is that we only have about a year and a half or so to wait to find out what’s really going on. We’ll probably hear more rumors and maybe even get some kind of info from Ford in the coming months, so stay tuned.