The Ford Ranger Super Duty has grabbed global headlines since it was revealed in April, with the Australian-developed, Thai-built pickup being produced with tough work in mind.
Using the Super Duty name usually found on North American pickups like the F-250 and F-350, the Ranger had to go through numerous changes to earn the badge, such as an overhaul of its chassis and powertrain.
Despite arguably being better suited to true blue-collar work than even the most basic versions of the Ford F-150, the Ranger Super Duty has lit up comments sections in the US, where for now it remains off limits.
Speaking to local media at the launch of the new model, Ford Australia CEO Andrew Birkic said the response to the Ranger Super Duty in the US – at both a company and public level – has been flattering, even if it won’t change Ford’s mind about putting it on sale there.
“I think they [including Ford global CEO Jim Farley] love it, from what I’ve been told, when they’ve seen the properties,” Birkic said.
“It’s bang on in our sweet spot, which is trucks, and it’s customer driven. It’s very different to the Super Duty franchise in North America. You’re talking double-wheel F-550s and F-650s, and so it [the Ranger Super Duty] is different.
“At this stage there’s no plans to take it there, but I think there will be a few Americans, once it gets launched, that’ll be going ‘okay, that’s pretty cool.”
Ford Australia product development director, Steve Crosby, added that despite the Ranger Super Duty being a regional product – so far only confirmed for Oceania and South-East Asia – it had to be given the tick of approval by Ford’s US operations to use its tough name.
“There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that this isn’t a Super Duty that lives up to the DNA of what a Super Duty is meant to do,” Crosby said.
“Its capacity, its capability – it’s at the top of this mid-size pickup capability statement – and it had to earn that and demonstrate that to the US as well.
“We had proof points all the way through the program to make sure that it lived up to those toughness statements, those durability statements, that Justin [Capicchiano, Ford Ranger Super Duty program manager] has executed all the way through the program.”
Before the Ranger Super Duty was revealed in April, test prototypes were spotted in Dearborn, Michigan near Ford’s global headquarters, though – like with the Bronco being seen in Australia – this doesn’t preface a launch in the market.
It’s worth noting too that the Ranger Super Duty is exclusively built in Thailand. The US currently imposes a 19 per cent import tariff on products from the nation.
While the standard Ford Ranger is also built in the US for the local market, its production line is not tooled for the Super Duty, nor the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 engine which powers the pickup.
Discussion about this post