Everest Super Duty a distraction: Ford

Ford’s Australian President and CEO Andrew Berkic explained why the overhauled and work-ready ute didn’t have an SUV companion.

“We’ve been focused on the Ranger Super Duty because you can be easily distracted into hobby projects,” he said.

“At the end of the day, based on the investment we’ve put into this vehicle and based on the [expected] volumes, this is not a hobby, right?

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“So we’ve been very, very focused and I think that’s when we do our best work, when we’re focused on what the task is and who the customer is and that’s what we’ve done.”

The Ranger Super Duty is a significantly overhauled product, its entire frame is new from the standard Ranger and reinforced in all locations.

It’s a comprehensive, and, as the brand alluded to, an extremely expensive project aimed at delivering a custom-built product for mining, forestry, and emergency service fleets.

“The manifestation of this is a pretty incredible vehicle,” Birkic continued. “The more you dilute that, I think you sub-optimise.”

As an example of the additional costs that may be required, there are seemingly subtle but significant differences between Ranger and Everest. Particularly when it comes to rear suspension geometry, with the Everest featuring a coil-sprung set-up compared to the Ranger’s leaf springs.

The leaf springs were also a particular focus for the development of the Super Duty, as they have a completely different load rating, different mounting points to the frame, and are not only optimised for load, but articulation in off-road situations.

“You’ve always got to start with the customer. Right now we’re doing around 20,000 Everests - predominantly that’s geared towards passenger and family, and that’s where it’s selling well, and we’ll continue to push in that direction.” Birkic continued.

“We don’t have endless [funds], so you have to make decisions, and we’ve made an intentional decision to nail the truck and we’ll continue to look at the evolution of Everest.”

Birkic stressed that while the Ranger Super Duty was conceptualised from customer conversations, the prospect of an SUV spin-off had not been brought up as all the evidence the brand needed to not pour funds into it as a project.

“It never comes up in customer conversations,” he said.

“Physically, where are you going to put two tonnes?” he said referring to the Ranger Super Duty’s sought-after near-two-tonne payload capacity.

He pointed to canopy options for recreational buyers who wanted a more SUV-like experience.

It’s not the first time the Everest has been sidelined in favour of Ford’s best-selling ute for major upgrades. The recently launched plug-in hybrid tech was also left out of the Everest line-up, despite being an important emissions-reducing feature for Ford in Australia.

Birkic has recently suggested there may be a better possibility of that tech landing in the Everest, alluding to stronger demand for that kind of technology for an Everest customer.

On top of this, the Ranger PHEV Chief Program Engineer Phil Millar said adding PHEV technology to Everest was “technically possible” with re-development costs seemingly less of a concern compared to demand.

The Super Duty line-up will receive a more upwardly-specified XLT variant, with the brand doubling down on what it hopes will be an entirely new 4.5-tonne GVM dual-cab niche.