When will Ford release an all-electric Ranger?

Ford has confirmed this will promote a plug-in hybrid Ranger by early subsequent year, with as much as 45km of electrical-ideal differ and 3.5 tonnes towing functionality.

As tantalizing as that is, it begs the demand – the assign is an all-electrical model?

An EV Ranger would elevate out away with petrol or diesel engines, swapping them for single or twin electrical motors and most likely battery packs of varying sizes. It’d be near-restful, get powertrain refinement unlike any varied twin-cab forward of it, and sure ravishing acceleration.

An electrical Ranger is mandatory, too, and never upright since the whole industry is turning EV – nonetheless because competitors might perhaps well rep the jump. LDV has confirmed a newcomer for subsequent year, Mitsubishi has dedicated to an all-electrical Triton, Toyota has hinted there’ll be an EV Hilux and likewise you might perhaps maybe perhaps well most likely bet you’ll watch EV utes from varied producers we are in a position to’t even yet factor in.

The answer, so some distance as Chasing Autos is aware of, is that an electrical Ranger is beneath high-secret building as you learn this. Listed right here, we bring together the whole recordsdata we get, alongside side some comments from Ford itself – and somewhat of speculation on our portion.

Ranger platform is ‘EV-ready’

Clues about an electrical Ranger lie in what’s been mentioned by Volkswagen, whose new Amarok is a extremely close relation on the identical T6.2 platform. Volkswagen Business Autos product management govt Petr Sulc told Chasing Autos leisurely final year that the Amarok and Ranger had been engineered to accommodate as much as a 100kWh battery pack.

Ford Australia President and CEO Andrew Birkic has mentioned the Ranger and Everest platform are “future-proofed”.

Clues from the F-150 Lightning

In its Ranger PHEV media briefing, Birkic acknowledged there modified into once effect a question to for an EV model of its ideal-selling twin-cab ute.

“The formulation to that is yes,” he mentioned.

But he also referenced the fame of the new F-150 Lightning electrical pick-up in the US – which in 2022 offered out its whole first year of production quickly after begin.

“We don’t get every particular person user case [for an electric Ranger] nonetheless what we all know is that there no doubt might perhaps well well be some effect a question to for that, and we’ve considered that in an in one other country market as an illustration. But they’re varied vehicles, varied platforms, varied user cases.”

An electrical Ranger might perhaps well borrow concepts from the F-150 Lightning such because the entrance beneath-bonnet boot, bidirectional charging, self reliant trailer hitching – and likewise its acceleration.

The twin-motor F-150 Lightning can velocity up from zero to 100km/h in about 4.5 seconds, which is unbelievable for a vehicle its measurement and weight. A twin-motor electrical Ranger in a position to 0-100km/h in 5.0 seconds is very much in the geographical regions of possibility.

The targets it could truly perhaps well deserve to fulfill

An electrical Amarok would get twin-motor all-wheel-power, a differ of round 500km and a circa-100kWh lithium-ion battery pack, Volkswagen has mentioned.

A Ranger would have confidence a detailed mechanical resemblance.

Chasing Autos would speculate Ford might perhaps well provide a couple of battery variations for an electrical Ranger, with Normal Fluctuate and Extended Fluctuate configurations offered. In the US, the F-150 Lightning Normal Fluctuate delivers a claimed 386km differ, while the Extended is 515km.

Any electrical Ranger would deserve to preserve up at the least the 3.5-tonne maximum braked towing ability of original diesel fashions. Any individual who questions the towing ability of an electrical vehicle need ideal seek at the F-150 Lightning with its spectacular 4500kg maximum braked towing ability.

Payload is the greater danger for engineers. With a heavy battery pack, payloads can tumble dramatically. The Ranger’s newest payload varies from 753kg to 1327kg and heaps Ranger customers would get runt payload compromise.

Composed some years away

Volkswagen has declared this will bring an all-electrical Amarok to market as quickly as mid-2025, Chasing Autos has previously reported. An electrical Ranger might perhaps well seem approximately one day of the identical time.

Ford Australia itself would now not be drawn on timings for an electrical model of its ideal-selling twin-cab. “We’re now not going to provide a converse timeframe on that,” mentioned Birkic.

We declare: peek this remark.