2025 Ford Ranger PHEV to be pricier than Raptor

As suspected, the 2025 Ford Ranger PHEV will be produced exclusively in South Africa as of next year, which doesn’t bode well for its Australian sticker price.

Pricing and specification details for the first electrified Ford Ranger are of course still a long way off, but if Ford Australia’s previous pricing strategies are anything to go by – specifically the Escape versus Escape PHEV – then the Ranger PHEV could end up being the most expensive Ranger to date a close to $100,000.

Using the now-defunct mid-size SUV as a reference, the Escape ST-Line FWD’s launch price of $37,990 compared to the $52,940 list price of the equivalent plug-in hybrid, translating to a near 33 per cent premium for the latter.

Applying the same margin to the Ranger line-up, the confirmed Wildtrak PHEV variant would start from $91,000 plus on-road costs when using the four-cylinder as the starting point – or $96,100 using the V6.

And that’s before you factor in the extra five per cent import tariff for the plug-in hybrid ute from South Africa (which unlike Thailand doesn’t have a free-trade agreement with Australia), which would bump its price to $100,905 plus on-roads.

Of course, all this is hypothetical for now as there’s no guarantee Ford will charge the same 33 per cent premium for the Ranger PHEV, but our maths are based on current MY24 Ranger pricing – so there’s every chance the eventual asking price could be even higher given Ranger and Everest prices have been ticking up like clockwork with every new production run or model year tweak.

Either way the first Ranger PHEV looks likely to eclipse the price of the high-performance Ranger Raptor (from $87,990) flagship, further reinforcing the top-selling Ford ute’s title as the most expensive iteration of the much-loved nameplate to date.

Confirmation that the Ranger PHEV will be produced exclusively at the Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, making it the only Australian variant not sourced from Thailand, came from Ford International Market Group operations director Andrea Cavallaro at Ford South Africa’s centenary celebrations last week.

“We’ve invested 5.2 Rand ($A436m) to bring PHEV Ranger to Silverton, and that includes building a battery pack assembly plant just right next door,” he said.

“We’re also going to make changes to our existing assembly plant to accommodate the plug-in hybrid version of Ranger on the same [production] line.

“The PHEV Rangers produced will be exported from South Africa to Europe, Australia and New Zealand – the first time in about two decades that South Africa will export vehicles to Australia and New Zealand.”

Cavallaro was only referring to Ford with that last line, given the new Volkswagen Amarok is also produced exclusively at Ford’s Silverton plant and shipped worldwide, including to Australia and New Zealand (unlike the original Amarok, which was produced in Argentina and Germany, as well as Ecuador and Algeria).

A PHEV version of the new Ranger-based Amarok has been expected since its launch earlier this year and now, following confirmation of South African production of the Ranger PHEV, it really is just a matter of time before its VW-badged sibling breaks cover.

We expect that will happen in March 2024 and it’s pretty much guaranteed the Amarok PHEV’s powertrain will comprise the same Ford-developed 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine and transmission-housed electric motor as the Ranger PHEV, providing the same 45km of EV range and 4x4 capability.

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