Why Ford believes Australians still love utes

Ford and Toyota don’t agree on much – including how popular their utes are.

Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss, Sean Hanley, has repeatedly predicted a downturn in utes sales in 2025 and beyond, as more rivals enter the market. But Ford Australia marketing chief Ambrose Henderson has dismissed that argument, explaining he’s confident that the Ranger will remain a strong sales performer throughout the year. Instead, Henderson has suggested that the aging HiLux is the reason Toyota believes the RAV4 will look more popular.

“ Yeah, look I’d probably first have a look at the HiLux sales results over the last couple of years and the direction that they’ve been taking, and so I’ll let Toyota explain that however they like, but that’s up to them,” Henderson said. “But we’re here to run our own race. Our sales increased in that space.”

Hanley’s argument is that the ute market has started to slow in overall growth at the same time new entrants from the likes of BYD, Kia and others have arrived. Ford’s Henderson, however, believes this is good for the segment and is confident that the Ranger will not only remain popular but will see off the challengers.

“Is the competition going to grow? Absolutely it is,” he said. “Who wouldn’t be a competitor looking at this segment in Australia and saying, ‘I want a piece of that’. So of course there’s going to be more competitors joining the pick-up segment where we’re very strong, but I think this year, the biggest noise is going to be made about some of the new product introductions we’re making.”

The new products he’s referring to are the Ranger PHEV and Ranger Super Duty, both of which are new variants which should, in theory, expand the appeal of the Ranger as the model gets older and introduce it to new customers.

“So I think we’ll have more than our fair share of exciting introductions into the segment that’ll help not only those individual products, but I’m sure the whole range of brand as well,”

Henderson said. “And probably the segment as it continues to redefine what a ute is. And that’s why the segment’s grown. It’s because a ute has become not only a ute that can put stuff in the back and tow, but it’s also become an amazing family car. Because of the refinement of the technology and the safety that Ford has introduced and pioneered in this segment.”