You already see it in showrooms of gray market importers, and some of you may have spotted it already on Philippine roads. But apparently, 2024 could be the year when we’ll finally see Ford Philippines officially launch the go-anywhere Bronco SUV.

That is after one of Ford’s dealer partners AutoHub Group hinted at it on social media. The post contained a single picture of the Bronco SUV and an emoji for a caption. While there’s not much to write home about the post itself, what’s interesting is that one of the top management executives of AutoHub Group reshared the post, and said in the comments that they are already accepting reservations.

As early as 2021, AutoHub Group boss Willy Tee Ten has had the Ford Bronco on his list of models he wants to bring in. After all, apart from being a dealer partner of Ford, AutoHub Group is known as an official distributor of niche brands such as Mini, Rolls-Royce, and Lotus. They also specialize in exclusively selling performance cars such as the Nissan Z and GT-R (Nissan High Performance Center in Quezon Ave), as well as several souped-up Fords under the Shelby brand.

In 2022, we even spotted Ford Group Philippines receiving regulatory approval for a passenger vehicle with a gasoline engine that has an exact displacement of 2687cc – which points out to the 2.7-liter Ecoboost V6 found in the international market version of the Bronco.

So far, we have not seen Ford get approval for the China-made Bronco which has a smaller 2.3-liter Ecoboost four-cylinder engine. If that’s anything to go by, then we could expect Ford to source out Bronco units made in the US.

The global chip shortage and strong demand for the Bronco in the US market may have been the factors that held Ford back from introducing its retro-modern SUV in PH. Nevertheless, these signs point out that the wait could finally be over.