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Ranchero rev up: Ford NZ eyeing new US electric ute
Richard Bosselman
August 13, 2025
Brand-new 400v platform, sub-Ranger pricing, in build from 2027 and definitely set to be exported. Ford new EV tray deck has raised local interest.
PROMISE from Ford Detroit that the fully electric utility similar in size to the Ranger it announced yesterday will be exported has excited the brand’s New Zealand operation.
Despite the electric vehicle sector being in doldrum, Ford New Zealand says it would be keen to pitch for the vehicle, which will begin build in 2027 and likely be called Ranchero. It will undertake a case study into how the model could fit here, potentially as a foil to battery-wed pick ups starting to come from China.
Cost competitiveness against those vehicles cannot be ruled out, with Ford vowing it can get the Ranchero into showrooms for as little as $53,000 on current currency conversion. That would make it cheaper than most Rangers, substantially so in respect to the just-released plug-in hybrid, which breaks ground in offering electric operability.
In announcing the new product yesterday, Ford made it clear that what is a clean-sheet product will be produced in volume - with 190,000 units a year planned from a programme costing $NZ8.4 billion all up - and will also sell outside North America, Ford New Zealand communications manager Tom Clancy said today.
“There’s nothing beyond that, so at this point we don’t have a lot of information.
“But the potential is obviously there. It sounds promising.”
EV sales are still sluggish at the moment and Ford’s sole passenger offer, Mustang Mach-E, has felt that. However, Ford accepts electric cannot be ignored.
In matching a 2.5-litre petrol engine to an electric drivetrain, Ranger PHEV has ability to engage fully electric driving, if for a limited distance, and is mainly in the market to keep Ford NZ’s overall CO2 count in check, Clancy says.
However, a fully electric vehicle is an even better panacea to that and next year emissions requirements will toughen.
“Ranger PHEV is more about emissions and performance, it’s not about going EV only. We do have an emissions challenge and that answers it. An EV answers it even more.
“Let’s wait and see what happens but, by all means, if the market is there for us we’d go for it. Just like everything. We always have to build a business case and go from there.”
More than Ranchero is possible. The vehicle is the first on what’s called the Universal EV Platform and will be subject to a Universal EV Production System.
Ford US says it plans to created up to eight body styles atop an underpinning whose design and build will deliver marked cost efficiencies that will be passed on to consumers.
Kiwis love of Ford’s current utility offering here is cemented and just as well for Ford NZ.
Though it has a spread of product here, Ranger is by far and away the best performer; for years now it has achieved more than 70 percent of Ford NZ's annual volume for years.
It has been the country’s best-selling ute for 10 years’ solid and also often the country’s top selling new vehicle. Set aside that penetration, and Ford would not be a top 10 brand here.
What might also make Ranchero an easy ride is that, whereas Mustang Mach-E comes from Mexico, so conceivably could yet be affected in some way by Trump tariffs, the new EV ute is to be built in the United States, at Ford’s famous Louisville factory.
Ford US is certainly bullish about calling the new four-door tray deck, says it stands to be the ‘next Model T moment’ - a reference to the brand’s most famous product from history, whose international success is such it is called the car that put the world on wheels.
Ford cites Ranchero will have more passenger space than the new Toyota RAV4, not counting the bed or the frunk space, and accelerate just as quickly as a four-cylinder petrol Mustang, a claim which likely means a sub-five-second 0-100kmh time. They say it will offer a lower cost of ownership than a Tesla Model Y.
It will utilise lithium-iron phosphate batteries, which Ford says is better for manufacturing and ownership, since the battery pack can be lighter and smaller, freeing up more space for passengers and reducing vehicle weight. LFP is cheaper to build and should also last longer than the traditional batteries used in EVs, Ford says.
The InsideEVs website believes Ford is seeking to use a battery pack that’s around 15 percent smaller than the unit present in the BYD Atto, which offers up 60.5 kWh of usable energy.
It says that suggests a pack touting 51 kWh of usable energy, which is modest. The Mach-E starts at 73 kWh. Ford’s F-150 Lightning has a 98 kWh battery pack.
Ranchero will also have a 400-volt architecture, and is expected to offer owners the ability to power their homes in countries that allow V2H (that’s to NZ).
Ford says the new platform uses 20 percent fewer parts compared to a typical vehicle and 25 percent fewer fasteners, while assembly requires 40 percent fewer workstations and can be completed 15 percent faster.
The wiring harness on the new truck will also be 1219 metres shorter and almost 10 kilos lighter than the one found in the Mach-E.
Part of reducing that part count is Ford's use of large, single-piece aluminium castings, which eliminates the need to weld a bunch of smaller parts together and will allow Ford to assemble the front and rear of the truck separately.
That process will also allow Ford to build Ranchero on three different sub-assembly lines instead of one giant one, and according to Ford, the new assembly lines also improve ergonomics for workers.
That will allow it to build vehicles 40 percent faster, although Ford says some of that saved time will be reinvested elsewhere to improve quality and reduce cost, which will still net a 15 percent faster total assembly time.
And why Ranchero? It’s a moniker previously used on a car-based pickup produced in North America between 1957 and 1979. Ford recently undertook to trademark the name for future use.
