Americans are apparently ready for smaller trucks, and the Ford Ranger nameplate could return from retirement to get the Blue Oval back in the segment.
According to The Detroit News, Ford plans to build a version of the Ranger pickup, that’s already sold overseas, in its Wayne, Michigan assembly plant from 2018. That’s the same year production of the Focus and C-Max hybrid and PHEV will move from that facility, likely to Mexico.
The United Auto Workers and Ford still need to OK the Ranger plan for Wayne Assembly, according to the report, but Ford is apparently set to build the Ranger somewhere in North America.
Ford abandoned a segment it dominated between the ’80s and 2000s when it canceled the American version of the Ranger in 2011. That same year, a new Ranger, developed by the company’s Australian arm, went on sale and is sold in Asia, South America and Europe – but not in North America. In those markets, the Ranger is powered by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder still used in models like the Escape and Fusion, or either a four or five-cylinder turbodiesel.
The whole “small” pickup category has undergone a bit of a renaissance since the Ranger’s departure, with General Motors introducing the new Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks last year to some success. The best-selling Toyota Tacoma has been redesigned for 2016, too, and a new Nissan Frontier derived from the Navara sold elsewhere is due by 2018.
While still a small segment by U.S. auto industry standards, Ford could be banking on renewed customer acceptance for light trucks and using a Ranger to help it meet fuel economy standards for the next decade, as well as stopping former Ranger customers from defecting to GM, Toyota and Nissan as those models are updated for the first time in a decade.
Photos
