Electric Raptors are coming … one day

The Ford Ranger Raptor looks set to one day embrace the electrified era – but it’s not likely to happen in a hurry.

The high-performance rough road hero of the Ford Performance line-up is under intensifying pressure to lower its CO2 emissions as tighter regulations come into play.

And while Ford is readying for a low-emissions world in the future, the Blue Oval brand says there’s plenty of life left yet in the current 3.0-litre V6 twin turbo engine that is at the heart of the Raptor.

That’s the word from senior Ford executives at a recent media event in Dubai to showcase the trio of models offered under the high-performance sub-brand.

Former Ford Australia president Kay Hart is now in charge of the International Markets Group (IMG) for Ford – of which Australia is a part – and concedes that electrification will strike the Raptor at some time in future. “Inevitable at some time in the future that there will be electrified offerings [of Raptor] … but we’re still working through what that means,” she said.

“We can continue to refine and ensure we’re bringing the most efficient ICE engines to the market,” she said, when asked how the Raptor could improve in the short term.

The prospect of an electrified Raptor would no doubt have plenty of owners querying the move. But it’s worth looking at what’s happening in the performance car world.

BMW has just unleashed its most potent M car in the form of the new M5 that teams a V8 engine with a hybrid system.

Ferrari and McLaren sell hybrid versions of their supercars that bring big performance gains over their petrol-powered predecessors.

And the most powerful Porsche road car ever unleashed is powered purely by electricity.

But applying a hybrid or EV system to a high performance off-roader creates new challenges, says Justin Capicchiano, Ford Performance, SVE program manager.

“Any battery-based system you are looking at what the performance is like when the battery gets degraded,” he said. “Does it overcome the weight of the battery when the battery gets depleted?”

A plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) – similar to what Ford has coming soon in regular versions of the Ranger – is also something he all but ruled out for Raptor.

“A straightforward PHEV is probably not going let you to deliver what you want to do,” he said. “You have to put that battery somewhere and the logical position is going to be somewhere out the back and that’s going to impact your off-road capability.”

Ultimately, he said a Raptor needs to be fast and fun – and, importantly, be able to explore remote areas.

“There’s a performance attribute then … you need to be able to get out and do the fun stuff, then you need to be able to get back.”

All of which suggests an evolution of the 3.0-litre V6 in the current car is on the cards in the medium term. That gels with comments from IMG boss Kay Hart.

She suggested the successful Raptor formula – it accounts for almost one in six Ranger sales – won’t be changing in a hurry.

“We can continue to refine and ensure we’re bringing the most efficient ICE engines to the market,” she said, when asked how the Raptor could improve.

“There are still customers that will demand of us a Raptor vehicle and Ranger and we will provide it.”

One thing that isn’t on the cards, though, is a more potent Raptor R version, mimicking the R variant offered in America for the F-150 Raptor.

In that car it steps up from a 3.5-litre V6 twin turbo in the F-150 Raptor to a 5.2-litre supercharged V8 in the Raptor R.

But Capicchiano says there are no plans to unleash a Raptor R.

“Right now we’re pretty happy with the hierarchy we’ve got [with Ranger] and I don’t think we’ve got plans to do R versions for those vehicles.”

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