2025 Ford Ranger is going electric: everything you need to know

CarExpert

Ford has just announced that the Ford Ranger will become a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in 2025. Paul Maric has all the details!  More Ford content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford More Ford Ranger content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/ranger  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 What we know: 00:16 Paul's thoughts: 05:44  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #ford #ranger #electric

Transcript

00:00 G'day I'm Paul, Ford has just announced that it will be launching a plug-in hybrid version

00:06 of the Ford Ranger.

00:07 I'm going to take you through all of the details that we know so far, plus some stuff I have

00:12 from my secret mole in Ford, along with what it means for the Everest as well.

00:17 So let's get right into it.

00:19 So Ford has just come out and officially announced probably the worst kept secret, and something

00:24 that we revealed to you guys over three years ago, and that is that the Ford Ranger will

00:29 become a plug-in hybrid dual cab ute.

00:32 So that plug-in hybrid will be offered alongside the regular internal combustion variants they

00:37 currently have available.

00:39 Now powering the plug-in hybrid will be a 2.3 litre turbocharged EcoBoost four cylinder

00:45 petrol engine, and that's going to be paired to an electric motor that will provide around

00:50 45 kilometres of driving range on battery alone.

00:54 Now Ford says according to data they've tracked from their customers between June 2022 and

01:00 September 2023 that more than half of their customers travel 40 kilometres or less per

01:06 day, so their justification is that this is going to serve the needs of at least half

01:12 of their customers.

01:13 They're also saying that the maximum towing capacity they're targeting with this plug-in

01:17 hybrid Ranger is 3500 kilos with a brake trailer, which is exactly what they have at the moment.

01:22 In addition to that it will also be fitted with Pro Power Onboard, which is an accessory

01:28 kit that is mounted to the tray that allows you to power external appliances.

01:32 So it will have a vehicle to load capability which is great.

01:35 It means that you can use this vehicle as a generator in effect without operating the

01:40 actual vehicle with stored battery energy, or alternatively you can actually switch the

01:44 vehicle on and use that as a generator to run your tools.

01:47 Now if it's anything like the system we've seen in F-150, it can accommodate around 7

01:51 kilowatts of power, which is enormous.

01:53 That is going to power a whole stack of appliances on your work site.

01:56 So really cool innovation and I think it goes one step further than just having a plug-in

02:01 hybrid.

02:02 But there are some alarm bells here.

02:04 So if you know how GCM and GVM works, we actually ran through a lot of this when we did our

02:10 four-wheel drive test where we did a lot of towing, and we spoke about how you can actually

02:14 exceed your towing and capacity limits very quickly if you don't load the vehicle correctly.

02:20 Now if you are adding stuff like a battery, an electric motor and all of the accessories

02:24 that come with a plug-in hybrid system, you're going to eat away at the payload capacity

02:29 that's available in a dual cab like the Ranger.

02:31 So depending on which spec you go for, it can be between 700 to 900 kilos.

02:36 If you do start eating away at that with these accessories, which is where they're going

02:40 to be pulling a lot of your load from, that is then going to mean that you have less capacity

02:44 to have passengers and other things in the vehicle along with things in your tray.

02:47 So it'll be interesting to see how Ford overcomes that because it won't take much to actually

02:52 exceed that limit and make your vehicle illegal on the road.

02:55 So let's see what happens there.

02:57 I want to rewind back to 2020 when we first spoke about this and we exclusively revealed

03:02 the engines that the Ranger is going to come with, the Everest is going to come with.

03:06 We also spoke about the power output that Ford was targeting at the time with the plug-in

03:10 hybrid.

03:11 If we go back to that article, we said back then that it was going to be a 2.3 litre turbocharged

03:16 four, which Ford has now confirmed with a plug-in hybrid system.

03:19 So my mole inside Ford has told me that the power and torque output they were hoping for

03:24 is 270 kilowatts of power and 680 newton metres of torque.

03:29 That means this will have the most torque output of any Ranger vehicle currently on

03:33 sale, including the Ranger Raptor, and that they'll be targeting a fuel economy of three

03:38 litres per 100 kilometres on the combined cycle.

03:42 So that is also pretty exciting stuff.

03:44 Ford has not confirmed that this is coming to Everest, but if again we go back to 2020

03:50 when my secret mole told me all of this stuff, they've actually confirmed that it will be

03:54 coming to Everest as well.

03:55 So that means that Everest will have plug-in hybrid capability down the track.

04:00 Ford is currently targeting a release of 2025 for this.

04:03 They're currently testing this technology here in Australia where the Ranger homeroom

04:07 is, so that is design and development of Ranger and Everest.

04:10 They're currently testing all of those plug-in hybrid components as we speak.

04:13 So we're going to see some of those test vehicles getting about, and we think that we'll see

04:16 the first of these vehicles in Q4 2024, and that's probably when we'll be able to drive

04:21 it as well.

04:22 Toyota is going to beat them to the punch though with hybrids.

04:24 So Toyota is bringing a very, very mild hybrid to Hilux next year.

04:28 It is basically a stop-start system, nothing sort of too crash-hot there.

04:32 Mitsubishi was the only other competitor that was likely to have a plug-in hybrid component

04:36 to their dual-cab ute, but they've said nothing is coming at this stage.

04:39 BYD will likely launch in Australia with a plug-in hybrid dual-cab ute as well.

04:43 Whether it beats the Ranger to the punch is unknown yet, so we'll have to wait and see.

04:47 We don't really have any more information yet on this offering from Ford, but we do

04:52 know that it is going to be probably expensive, and I suspect it'll be around Ranger Raptor

04:57 or more expensive when it does finally land.

05:01 Ford has been gradually increasing the prices of Ranger and Everest, and I think by the

05:05 time this arrives we're going to be talking around the $100,000 mark for this vehicle,

05:10 which will be very interesting to see exactly how consumers digest that kind of big price

05:14 jump.

05:15 And hey, while we're here we might as well just run through the other stuff that we said

05:19 was going to be coming in 2020.

05:20 So we said that Everest was going to get a new variant called WildTrack X.

05:25 They have recently released the WildTrack, but the WildTrack X is going to pick up the

05:29 same suspension components that we've seen in the Ranger WildTrack X.

05:34 In addition to that we do think that they're also going to have two different variants

05:37 at the top end, the titanium and the platinum, how they interact with each other we're not

05:41 entirely sure yet, but I'm pretty sure that stuff is coming.

05:44 Now what do I think about all this?

05:46 Look, I think it's a great thing for fleets, a lot of fleets are now demanding clean options.

05:51 Ford has started fitting AdBlue to some of these variants, so the latest WildTrack X

05:56 that comes with the 2.0 litre diesel, that is actually fitted with AdBlue.

05:59 So I think that Ford will gradually start making these more and more efficient.

06:04 This plug-in hybrid option will work really well for fleets, councils, those types of

06:09 organisations that have strict emission targets that they want to meet, and they're probably

06:13 going to be willing to pay whatever Ford wants to charge for this.

06:16 Ultimately though, these things are getting expensive.

06:18 Australia has recently removed the tax incentive that people had to buy dual cab utes, so it'll

06:22 be interesting to see over the next six to 12 months as back orders clear through, whether

06:26 there is still a fresh supply of these utes coming through, whether consumers are still

06:31 going for them, given that a lot of them were purchasing them solely for the purpose of

06:36 tax benefits.

06:37 I think it is good news about the development of Ranger in general, it means that jobs will

06:41 be retained in Australia and hopefully it means that that expertise will stay here,

06:45 and it also means that we are going to have the ability in the future for these to be

06:49 even quicker.

06:50 If this is going to be fitted with an electric motor as well, it should actually mean that

06:53 it's nice and fast.

06:54 The four-cylinder version of the Amarok that we tested recently is heaps of fun to drive,

06:58 so hopefully they'll actually make this sporty as well, which means that you can actually

07:01 have a sport mode that lets it accelerate as quickly as a Ranger Raptor does.

07:06 So that is some pretty exciting stuff, and then also for Everest, when they do finally

07:10 fit that, that's going to be a great option there for families who don't necessarily want

07:14 an electric vehicle but are happy to go down the path of a plug-in hybrid instead.

07:18 So let me know what you reckon about all of this in the comments section below.

07:23 Information is a bit scarce at the moment, but if they are targeting that close to 700

07:27 newton-meter torque range, I think this is going to have a fair bit of kick.

07:31 This has launched in the States, the Raptor is about to launch in the States, and I have

07:34 a feeling that the States will also get the plug-in hybrid version as well, along with

07:38 other global markets too.

07:39 So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.

07:41 Sorry about this slightly dodgy video, we just thought we'd pop this one out while we're

07:45 busy shooting the RAM 1500 and the new GWM Canon XSR as well.

07:51 Thank you for watching.

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07:58 But until next time, take it easy.

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