It appears to be a matter of when, not if, the Ford Ranger will go electric, but Ford’s senior global management isn’t ready to give away any timing details yet. However, we are getting a clearer idea of what to expect when it does eventually arrive.
In a series of interviews with some of the Ford Motor Company’s most senior executives, CarsGuide has gained a clearer picture surrounding the long-rumoured plans for an all-electric Ranger.
While a plug-in hybrid variant of the recently released Ranger and Everest models are all-but-confirmed and will hit showrooms in the near future, the all-electric version is likely to take longer.
John Lawler, chief financial officer for Ford globally, said the Ranger is a crucial model for the brand as it’s sold in 180 markets around the world – but he wouldn’t say when the electric version would appear in showrooms. One of the key reasons for the slower introduction time is that the markets that the Ranger is popular in – including Australia – aren’t moving as swiftly to electrification as the USA and Europe.
“I’m going to disappoint you because I’m not going to give you a timeframe,” Mr Lawler said. “What I can say is Ranger is a cornerstone for us globally, but the majority of the markets where it is number one or two aren’t moving to electrification as quickly, but there are markets that are. Here [in the US], Ranger is a big part of our business, [as it is in] Australia and other [markets].
“What I would say is, we haven’t announced anything but what I really like where we’re headed with the folks we’ve brought in working on Model E from an engineering and design standpoint, and the freedom that not having an engine, etc from a design perspective open up, is there’s possibilities. So whether it’s Ranger or other possibilities to bring and expand BEVs globally, we will do that. Watch this space.”
Crucially, Mr Lawler did reveal that the Thailand factory that builds the Ranger and Everest is earmarked to become an electric vehicle hub for Ford, strengthening the chances that an electric Ranger is coming eventually.
“Thailand is going to be a hub for manufacturing zero-emission vehicles,” he said.
He added: “Ranger is a huge opportunity for us and it’s the cornerstone for us [in international markets]. It’s incredibly important to us. We’re excited about what the capabilities are.”
Trevor Worthington, vice president of internal combustion vehicle programs for Ford which means the Ranger is part of his remit, confirmed CarsGuide’s previous report that the new T6.2 underpinnings have been designed to accommodate not just a plug-in hybrid powertrain (which is the reason for its extended wheelbase) but could even allow for an entirely electric powertrain.
“What we tried to do is create vehicles where we future-proof the alternatives,” Mr Worthing explained. “So what we’ve tried to do with this generation of Ranger and Everest is, by the architectural work we’ve done by extending the wheelbase and the track increase, that if the future is a PHEV or a BEV or something else – hydrogen, lithium, rocket fuel – we’ve got an architecture that will respond to customers’ needs.”
However, he wouldn’t be drawn into confirming which option is the Ranger’s future.
“I don’t really know what the path is,” Mr Worthington said. “I know the stuff we’re working on, but we’re not going to talk about that.”
Crucially, though, if you’re expecting the electric Ranger to simply be the current car with the diesel engines swapped for electric motors and batteries you’re mistaken. That’s not Ford’s approach to building electric vehicles under the head of its new Model E business, Doug Fields, the former Tesla and Apple engineer who insists on pushing the limits of design for all new EVs.
Darren Palmer, vice president of electric vehicle programs for Ford Model E, made it clear any electric version of the Ranger must be an “insanely great” car, not just a new version of the diesel-powered version.
“My boss says to me, both [Ford president and CEO] Jim Farley and Doug Fields, ‘if it’s like today but a bit better, it’s cancelled,’” Palmer said. “We use that all the time in meetings ‘if it’s a like today but a bit better, cancel it.’ We’re not going to make that, it’s not the winning formula. The winning formula for Ford is picking the segments our customers love and then figuring out how to make them insanely great, to do things they’ve never done before.”
That will likely mean a major re-design of the body and underpinnings in the same vein as the F150 Lightning, which features a 400-litre front storage area under the bonnet, bi-directional power and other features not available on the petrol and diesel powered version of the F-150.
That likely means a major design change and that would probably not come until the mid-life facelift for the new Ranger, which isn’t expected until the second half of this decade. But that also means it’s likely that an all-electric Ranger could hit Australian showrooms by the end of the decade, perhaps as soon as 2028.
Stay tuned…
Keyword: Ford Ranger Electric: What to expect from the all-electric version of the Toyota HiLux rival