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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