Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid coming to Australia: Here’s how the all new ute stacks up against the competition
Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid is coming to Australia: here’s how the all-new ute stacks up against the competition
- Ford Ranger is the first plug-in hybrid ute
- Biggest upheaval in the United States in decades
The Ford Ranger will be Australia’s first car available as a hybrid from early next year.
This is the biggest shake-up in the diesel-dominated car market in decades, with Ford stepping in before Elon Musk’s Tesla company launches its all-electric Cybertruck.
Ford will offer customers a plug-in hybrid version of the Ranger from early 2025, making it the first car in Australia available with something other than a diesel or petrol engine.
While Toyota offers hybrid versions of its RAV4, Corolla and Camry, this has yet to happen on the HiLux, Australia’s perennial bestseller.
The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning isn’t coming to Australia as demand exceeds supply in the US, but Ford is offering the next best thing with the Ranger.
The Ford Ranger will be Australia’s first car available as a hybrid from early next year
Ford will offer customers a plug-in hybrid version of the Ranger from early 2025, making it the first car in Australia to be available with something other than a diesel or petrol engine
Andrew Birkic, the president and CEO of Ford Australia and New Zealand, said the plug-in hybrid version of the Australian-designed Ranger would offer motorists performance and zero tailpipe emissions.
‘The Ranger Plug-in Hybrid is a solution that offers the best of both worlds for work, leisure and family, offering customers electric driving with no tailpipe emissions for short journeys, or hybrid performance that delivers incredible on- and off-road performance ,’ he said
The Ranger Plug-in Hybrid delivers more torque than any other Ranger, thanks to a 2.3-litre Ford EcoBoost turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor and a rechargeable battery system.
It can travel more than 45 km on pure electric power without using a drop of fuel or producing tailpipe emissions, helping customers save at the pump.
The Ranger Plug-In Hybrid’s target maximum braked towing capacity is 3,500 kg – the same as the rest of the Ranger range.
The Ford Ranger was Australia’s second most popular car in August, behind the Toyota HiLux, but was ranked number 1 in July for the fourth time in 2023.
This year marks 90 years since Ford Australia invented the automobile after Louis ‘Lewis’ Bandt designed the Ford ‘coupe utility’ in Geelong.
This year marks 90 years since Ford Australia invented the automobile after Louis ‘Lewis’ Bandt designed the Ford ‘coupe utility’ in Geelong
Bandt came up with the famous concept of a car with a tray at the back in 1933, after a Gippsland woman wrote to Ford Australia requesting a comfortable passenger car that her farmer husband could drive to church on Sunday and on Monday could bring pigs to market.
“My husband and I can’t afford a car and a truck, but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?’
During the Great Depression, farmers could only afford one car.
The general manager of the Ford Motor Company of Australia, Hubert French, passed that handwritten letter to Lewis Bandt, then a 23-year-old design engineer.
His solution is now considered one of Australia’s greatest inventions, alongside the Victa lawn mower, the Hills Hoist washing line and WiFi, making cars now the top selling cars every month.
Lewis Bandt, who died in 1987, was also the great-uncle of Greens leader Adam Bandt.