The man heading up Ford’s global development programme for the next-generation Ranger says the new model will build on the strengths of the current version, but hinted that its introduction to the North American market wouldn’t compromise the bakkie’s strengths.
Dave French, the programme director for commercial vehicles in Asia Pacific, told motoring.com.au that his team was working hard to further improve the Ranger ahead of its expansion into the North American market, which is expected in 2019.
“We are very happy with Ranger and it has done even better than we had hoped in many markets. But can we do better? Absolutely,” French told the Australian publication.
“We are working hard to do exactly that. We are in an environment where – particularly going to 200 countries – we have all these different regulations. We have got most of the car being regulated more and more and some places it is regulated less and less.
“That makes for a lot of change that’s required in the design, particularly emissions and fuel economy requirements, in the markets we sell into. We have got plenty of challenges,” he admitted to motoring.com.au.
When the next-generation model arrives, will the US-spec Ranger be vastly different to the version offered in the likes of Australia and South Africa?
“I can’t comment directly on it, but you look at any OEM that makes cars for the whole world and have a look at how different they are in North America. They have specific needs … regulatory needs are different and consumer tastes are different in some respects,” he explained, possibly referring to the North American preference for petrol power over diesel oomph.
“But we are all about having global product and we only have one T6 engineering team and one Ranger programme team, so we don’t plan to fritter away our resources on making two different Rangers, if we can possibly avoid it.
“So our focus is commonality, where we can be as common as possible. But we recognise there are differences that are going to suit North America,” he added.
The T6 platform will also underpin the next-generation Everest and the revived Bronco.
