Ford Ranger Lightning EV trademarked

The Ford Motor Company has moved to trademark the ‘Ranger Lightning’ nameplate, taking an important step towards an all-electric powertrain option for the new-generation, Australian-developed Ford Ranger ute.

As the 2022 Ford Ranger enters showrooms this week, and first deliveries are made to customers who ordered their new ute months before it entered production in Thailand, the Blue Oval brand lodged a trademark application on July 11 with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for a Ranger Lightning model.

The application, which is under examination by EUIPO but isn’t expected to be challenged, comes under class 12 that relates specifically to “motor vehicles, namely, automobiles, pick-up trucks, electric vehicles in the nature of automobiles, pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles, and their structural part”.

Ford has not yet formally announced that it’s developing a smaller sibling to the Ford F-150 Lightning full-size electric pick-up, which is under consideration for our market as part of Ford Australia’s new factory-supported right-hand drive conversion program that gets underway in Melbourne next year with regular combustion-engined F-Series models.

However, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed in April that the company was already preparing to build “another electric pick-up truck” in the US, which would be “different” to the F-150 Lightning.

That places the new Ford Ranger in a prime position to receive a zero-emissions battery-electric powertrain, as well as the smaller lifestyle-oriented Ford Maverick ute – which has also been the subject of a trademark application by FoMoCo this week.

We don’t think Ford is simply hedging its bets but is actively developing full-electric powertrains for a broad range of light commercial vehicles, including its best-selling utes and pick-ups.

The US auto giant has already split its empire into EV (Ford e) and ICE (Ford Blue) divisions and has committed to becoming a full-electric brand in Europe by 2030.

In Australia, the Ford E-Transit van launching this year will be the brand’s first EV Down Under, as one of five electrified models promised by 2025.

The company has already confirmed to carsales that a fuel-saving mild-hybrid system is under development for the new Ford Ranger and the related Ford Everest family SUV.

What’s more, Ford’s joint-venture partner Volkswagen also confirmed last week that the incoming new Ranger-based 2023 Volkswagen Amarok has been “made for electrification”, meaning that its Australian-developed third-generation T6 platform architecture is ready to take on a range of electrified powertrains.

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