The Ford Ranger pickup created the compact truck market in the U.S. Time for a new one here?
The all-new Ford Ranger pickup debuted at the Bangkok Motor Show on Thursday with heavily changed sheet metal and powertrains. The 2011 Ranger comes in 4×2 and 4×4 drivetrains and two ride heights with the so-called 4×2 Hi-Rider sharing the same frame as the 4×4 model.
There are two revised Ford Duratorq TDCi diesel engines – a 2.2-liter four-cylinder with peak torque output of 375 Nm and power output of 110 kW (150 PS); and a 3.2-liter five-cylinder engine with a torque rating of 470 Nm and power rated at 147 kW (200PS). The 2.5-liter Ford Duratec four-cylinder petrol engine produces 226 Nm of torque and outstanding power of 122 kW (166 PS).
Ford is billing the compact pickup truck as a global entry – it will be sold throughout Europe, Asia and South America – but remains mute if the Ranger will reappear in the United States, the world’s largest pickup truck market.
For the first time, Ranger diesel models will be available with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission – looks to be a class first – to provide reduced engine rpm and extend its range. Gasoline models lag here with a standard five-speed manual transmission. Nonetheless fuel economy – ranging from 7.6 L/100 km to 9.8 L/100 km in a combined cycle (EU 80/1268/EEC) are among the best in class.
Thailand is among the largest pickup truck markets in the world, with small pickups making up more than 40% of the vehicle market because of government incentives. Ford (actually Mazda runs the plant) GM and Toyota all manufacture small to mid-size pickup trucks in Thailand and export them.
Ford, which once dominated the compact pickup truck segment in the U.S., has said that it will close its Twin Cities, Minn., Ranger plant at the end of this year. Ford says it plans to offer instead more fuel efficient models of the gigantic F-150 pickup, still the best selling vehicle in the U.S. at 74,000 units year-to-date.
The Toyota Tacoma is currently the best selling mid-size pickup truck in the U.S. at more than 15,000 units’ year-to-date, outselling by more than 2:1 an ancient Ranger – whose last major redesign was in 2001.
Production of the current Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon in Shreveport, La., is scheduled to end when the plant closes no later than June 2012 after a deal to sell the plant to the Chinese fell through. Shreveport also built the now defunct Hummer H3. The plant was a victim of the GM bankruptcy as well as rising gasoline prices in 2008 which caused truck sales to plummet. However, GM confirms that the new Colorado that also debuted at Bangkok will be sold in the U.S., without saying where it will be built.
Complicating a potential continuation of the Ford Ranger in the U.S. are several factors: Sales of Ford’s F-150 full size truck at 500,000 units annually are far below its record year of 940,000 in the earlier part of the century, robbing Ford manufacturing of badly needed economies of scale.
More significant perhaps is an impending UAW contract in the U.S. which expires this September. Ford is the only automaker of the Detroit Three, which doesn’t have a “no strike” clause, which was inserted into GM and Chrysler contracts by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of its taxpayer financed reorganizations of the bankrupt companies. This makes Ford a natural target for the UAW. Importing the new Ranger from Thailand, as Ford will for European and Asian sales, would be controversial, to understate the problem.
(See also New Chevrolet Colorado Concept Begs the Fuel Economy Question: Where oh Where is Ford’s Small U.S. Pickup? and Chevrolet Colorado Show Truck Unveiled in Bangkok)
