Mengapa Ford tidak ingin mengorbankan ute terlarisnya

The Ford Ranger PHEV has been criticised for its on-paper performance, with detractors focusing on its limited 49km electric-only driving range.

That’s due to a small 11.8kWh battery pack, which pales in comparison to the more affordable GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV’s 37.1kWh battery, delivering a claimed 115km of driving range.

However, GWM has had to make some sacrifices, such as moving the Cannon Alpha’s spare wheel and tyre – usually mounted under the chassis – into the tub, infringing on space in the back.

While the Chinese plug-in hybrid ute has launched well before the Ranger, Ford was aware of the risk of changing any of its popular ute’s key features in search of being a better PHEV.

“The key brief was around maintaining the capability of the Ranger,” said Ford Ranger PHEV chief program engineer, Phil Millar.

“So all that stuff heading into the packaging and capability, the spare tyre packaging, we didn’t want to compromise.”

Ford Australia’s head of marketing, Ambrose Henderson, added that sacrificing any of the Ranger’s standard capabilities was not an option.

“I think it’s really important that there’s no point having a ute or putting a Ranger badge on, we just wouldn’t do it if we were compromising on the key components that make it a Ranger and being able to perform as a ute,” Henderson said.

“That’s the ability to put stuff in the back. See how the wheel is packaged under here – it’s packaged the same way as a normal Ranger, or slightly different if you compare them back-to-back, but it’s the same solution there.

“Customers can choose whether they want to have that wheel or not, but if they do, it’s packaged in a way which doesn’t compromise on being able to use it as a ute.”

“We have [data from] 11.7 million journeys from our customers, and that data says that the average drive per day is less than 40km.

“So you could put a huge battery in it, but then you’re compromising on all the other things that customers need, want and use every day.”

Deliveries of the Ranger PHEV kick off in mid-2025, becoming the third plug-in hybrid ute on sale in Australia behind the BYD Shark 6 and GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV.