A grand total of 873,751 Ford Ranger bakkies have been produced at the manufacturer’s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria in the past 11 years.
This massive figure was revealed by Ford South Africa this week as the last unit of the current-generation Ranger rolled off the production line on 10 November, making way for the next-generation bakkie which is set to make its debut in December.
Of the 873,751 units produced, over 271,000 of these found owners inside our borders, while the remaining 603,000 were exported to more than 100 overseas markets.
This has made the Ranger one of the country’s top exports, as well as one of its best-selling vehicles.
“Our locally assembled Ford Ranger has been a huge success in South Africa and internationally, having completely redefined the pick-up segment when it was launched in 2011 and it continued to set benchmarks over the ensuing 11 years,” said Ockert Berry, VP of operations at Ford South Africa.
“[The] Ranger not only placed South Africa on the map as a global production and export hub, but also played an important role in expanding the domestic automotive manufacturing sector.”
Making way for the new
Since 2009, Ford has invested more than R27 billion in its South African operations.
This has resulted in its Silverton factory undergoing several changes over the years, with expansions in 2016 and again in 2018 to keep up with international demand for the bakkie, said Berry.
In 2019, the plant also celebrated the production of the first-ever Ranger Raptor, the flagship model of the series, which was inspired by the Baja race championship in the Americas.
Last year, the American carmaker then made its biggest investment in one go and spent R15.8 billion on its Silverton plant to modernize and expand the facility ahead of the next-generation Ranger’s production.
As of today, Silverton is capable of manufacturing 200,000 vehicles a year, and Ford South Africa directly employs 5,500 people with another 60,000 jobs further along the supply chain.
As a result, the company annually contributes 1% to South Africa’s entire gross domestic product (GDP), it said.
Keyword: How many Ford Rangers have been built in South Africa – 11 years later