2022 Ford Everest toughens up! Bigger, badder, Ranger-based SUV caught testing in Australia - but will pricing get bigger, too?

The 2022 Ford Everest has been spied testing in Australia, with the Ranger based SUV sporting a new and tough-looking (and, sadly, camouflaged front-end when snapped in Suburban Melbourne.

The clock is now counting down on the grand unveiling of the Ford Everest, with what appears to be a production model snapped by our keen-eyed photographer in a shopping centre carpark in Williamstown, Victoria. 

Stare though we have, we're unable to spot somewhere to plug in on either flank of the new Everest, which suggests this is not a PHEV model, though the technology is widely tipped to appear in both the Everest and the new Ranger, though likely not at launch.

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What is clear, though, is its big and tough-looking front end, with the Everest expected to follow the Ranger's lead into US-style big truck territory.

The Everest - a vehicle on which design has been led by Australia - will ride on a revised version of the brand's T6 platform, this time called ‘T6.2’ – which it will share with the new Ford Ranger.

The 2022 Ford Everest should be unveiled later this year. (image credit: Anonymous fan)

Under the hood is expected to live the brand's 157kW and 500Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine (the engine used in the current Ranger Raptor), while bigger, more powerful V6 engines are also likely to appear.

Those flagship V6 engines – a 3.0-litre single-turbo diesel producing about 185kW/600Nm, and a 2.7-litre twin-turbo petrol developing around 230kW/540Nm – will both out-punch the Everest's current outputs.

And even a PHEV model appears likely, with a plug-in hybrid variant of the new Ranger recently spied testing in Europe - though it's not expected to be available at launch.

The Ford Everest will welcome a host of new engine options. (image credit: Anonymous fan)

Like the new Ranger, a tech upgrade its also expected, with bigger multimedia screens, newer Ford software and better materials. With those new engines, the new tech, and new materials, though, will likely come a new price, with the new Everest, and its Ranger sibling, likely to be more expensive than the models they replace. 

For timing, expect the Everest to follow the Ranger, which will debut later this year ahead of a 2022 on-sale date.