Ford Transit vs Ford Ranger

What's the difference?

Ford has taken an unorthodox approach to entering the electric vehicle market in Australia, avoiding the hype around the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning and instead laying the foundations with the E-Transit.

But it’s a savvy move, giving the brand a chance to enter what should be a largely untapped market with a vehicle that should appeal to what buyers are looking for. With unchanged space compared to the diesel-powered Transit, the switch to a more powerful electric powertrain makes the E-Transit a win-win scenario for those with a suitable daily driving routine.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

I can definitely see the pitch for the Ranger Super Duty. For fleets, having a vehicle with more modern safety, comfort, and thoughtful technologies is compelling when the alternative is an old Toyota 70 Series or a hardly-suitable-for-Aussie-roads full-size American pick-up.

It is beefed up for whatever the trails can throw at it, and more than work-ready without the need for months of conversion work, but for private buyers, do you really need this? For some niche towing and off-road applications it’s an unbeatable factory offering, but I’d argue it’s expensive overkill for most.

Still, Ford’s customer-centric approach is commendable. It will be interesting to see if it can simply create a 4.5T GVM sub-segment for the dual-cab market in the same way Raptor did for performance variants.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the design is there’s nothing very different about the E-Transit compared to the regular Transit. Which is a good thing, because the Transit is already a popular delivery van so any change for the sake of difference may have messed with the winning formula.

In fact, the design element that is important is the way Ford has laid the battery packs flat inside the ladder-frame chassis which means none of the cargo space has been compromised. This means the E-Transit has the same load area as its internal combustion equivalent, which is key for any delivery van.

The Super Duty dwarfs a standard Ranger on the road. The track is as wide as a Raptor, while the height has increased significantly. It looks almost as though someone dropped a Ranger in Photoshop and told it to increase everything by 15 per cent.

The chunky grille, re-designed blocky fenders to accommodate the extra width, intentionally squared-off wheel arches, and beefed-up ride height with correspondingly larger wheels make the Super Duty imposing on the road.

Like its relatives overseas, the Super Duty logo is three-dimensionally imprinted on the bonnet, and the factory tray being available in a range of finishes (steel, matt black, or colour matching) either adds to the ruggedness or street appeal depending on what the buyer is after.

All of this is not just to make the car look tough, but also to accommodate the depth of changes underneath, because the Super Duty is so fundamentally different from a standard Ranger it’s almost an entirely new vehicle.

Even things as core as the chassis rails have been up-gauged significantly to handle this car’s additional capabilities. Ford has even delved into its Detroit parts catalogue to upgrade almost everything else underneath. It features a front differential from the Bronco Raptor, eight-stud wheel hubs from the F-250, and an upgraded version of the rear axle assembly from a Transit van, although with a unique and up-sized rear differential.

There is also a new transfer case, 130-litre fuel tank, and steel underbody protection which can pivot the entire weight of the vehicle.

Inside looks and feels like a regular Ranger. As mentioned, it comes with all the multimedia amenities and some of the luxuries like soft-touch finishes for anywhere your elbows are going to rest, although the abundance of hard plastics are notable.

The cabin is very similar to what you’ll find in the Transit, so there will be familiarity for anyone making the switch from the diesel-powered version. The rotary shifter and 12.0-inch tablet-style multimedia screen make for a smart look but also means minimal space is wasted.

It’s a thoughtfully designed cabin, with plenty of usable storage spaces, including three cup-holders, a pair of bottle-holders and deep storage shelves on the top of the dashboard. The doors are particularly noteworthy, with multiple storage areas carved into the available space.

The seats are comfortable and, naturally with a high-roof van, there’s plenty of head room which creates a spacious feeling.

Behind the seats is the cargo area. In the US-specification E-Transit we drove there was a dividing wall between the cabin and the back of the van, with a small sliding door to access the cargo area, but it’s unlikely this will be offered in Australia. Instead, local models will likely have a hard divider between the cabin and back, with a small window for visibility.

As mentioned earlier, the floorspace in the E-Transit remains the same as the Transit thanks to the battery being laid underneath the floor, so there’s plenty of cargo volume that will please fleet buyers. 

In the US the E-Transit’s cargo area measures 11.3-cubic-metres with the medium-height roof and expands to 12.4cu/m with the high-roof body.

Ford says the “targeted payload” will be 1616kg.

Practicality is what the Super Duty is all about, and it starts with the capacities. As already mentioned, this means a 4500kg GVM, which allows a payload of up to 1982kg (for the lightest single-cab variant), and up to 4500kg of towing capacity, and a total GCM of up to 8000kg.

The factory Cab Chassis tray was also part of the design from the beginning, and has dimensions to make the most of the footprint, measuring in at 2580mm x 1950mm for the Single Cab, 2130mm x 1950mm for the Super Cab, and 1830mm x 1950mm for the double cab.

The off-road dimensions are also strong, with an approach angle of 36.3 degrees, a departure angle of 29.3 degrees, and a breakover angle of 26.9 degrees (for the most capable Single Cab variant). Even the ground clearance is increased to between 295 and 299mm - larger in every direction over the standard model.

Wading depth is 850mm and a fully sealed Safari Snorkel comes standard on every body style. Plus, there are heavy-duty recovery hooks wherever you need them if you do end up getting stuck. The stock tyre is an all-terrain General Grabber, so most buyers won’t have to drive straight to a tyre shop either.

The choice of three body styles is excellent from the factory. One suited to every niche, while there are other commendable additions like the pre-drilled hard points in the dash for the fitment of equipment with a factory finish, as well as modern amenities like a full-size power outlet on the back of the centre console in every body style.

Plus, Ford has already reached out to the aftermarket so a range of accessories for both recreational buyers and its target fleet audience are already catered for at launch.

Perhaps the only detractor from what is otherwise a car that seems to cater to every need is the lack of a de-specified interior. With such tough intentions, I can see scenarios where the 12-inch touchscreen could be a liability, and cloth seats could easily get destroyed where a hard wearing vinyl trim isn’t an option.

The Super Duty name might be new to Australia, but it’s only worn by the most capable and work-ready Ford products overseas.

It doesn’t just mean off-road capability either, as is the case for the Raptor, it means something deeper, requiring significant upgrades under the skin to bring the Ranger’s GVM (gross vehicle mass) up to a whopping four-and-a-half tonnes, and the GCM (gross combination mass) climbing to a stratospheric eight tonnes.

This means the Super Duty is stepping into capability territory usually only occupied by right-hand drive converted American ‘full-size’ pick-ups, such as the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ford’s own F-150, or even the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series.

The good news is the Super Duty doesn’t cost near as much as the American full-sizers, which start at around $135,000. Instead, the new Ford starts from $82,990 before on-road costs for a Single Cab Chassis, with the Super Cab-Chassis stepping up to $86,490, and the Double Cab-Chassis topping out the range for now at $89,990.

All are diesel V6 powered 4x4s with independently locking front and rear differentials. More on those details later.

It’s worth noting those are before on-roads prices, but the options list is long and can get very expensive. See our story on accessory pricing for the Super Duty range here but even basic additions like the factory steel tray costs between roughly $6000-$10,000, depending on the finish selected.

The official ARB bull bar is also another six grand, although items which are expected to be commonly selected together are conveniently packaged up in the Adventure, Work, and Farm packs. Costs for these vary between nearly $8000 to $22,000, so the Super Duty can get super expensive super quickly.

Even with those options, the Super Duty isn’t a luxurious offering, with cloth seat trim, hard plastic dash and door finishes and vinyl flooring, although many conveniences from the rest of the Ranger line-up remain, like the 8.0-inch digital dash and 12-inch portrait multimedia display. 

Ford argues the seats and refinement levels are an improvement over what most of its intended fleet audience are currently working with, in a thinly-veiled swipe at the comparatively ancient 70 Series.

For private buyers hoping for something a little more plush, an XLT grade both as a cab chassis and with a factory tub is also on the way later in 2026, featuring things like leather-trimmed seats and alloy wheels.

Also helping set the Super Duty apart is an array of clever conveniences for the intended purpose. For example, there’s built-in scales for measuring how close you are to this car’s enormous GVM, a smart hitch feature, which does the same thing but for optimised towing, pre-wired switches for auxiliary electronics in the roof console, and 18-inch truck-style steel wheels which are expressly designed to be bashed back into shape if they’re beaten up on the trails.

In some ways then, value is a buyer beware story. The Super Duty packs a range of awesome work-ready kit, and with option packs that are ready-to-go straight out of the box. However, it’s also expensive when everything is added up, so if you’re a private buyer, it’s worth asking if you really need the capability this thing offers.

One element of the E-Transit we are clear on is what’s under the bonnet. The E-Transit is powered by an 198kW/430Nm electric motor that powers the rear wheels and draws energy from a 68kWh battery.

That means the E-Transit is the most powerful member of the Transit family, with the rest of the range powered by the 125kW/390Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine.

Ford claims the E-Transit has a range of 317km (on the WLTP cycle), which may not sound like a lot for a commercial van but Ford claims in the US the daily average for such vehicles is only 120km.  

In order to save charge, the E-Transit is equipped with an Eco Mode which limits top speed, regulates acceleration and limits climate control settings. Ford claims this allows the driver to cut energy usage by between eight to 10 per cent when driven at highway speeds or when unladen. 

Again, things don’t look too different from a regular Ranger under the bonnet, with the Super Duty maintaining the same 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine and 10-speed automatic transmission, but with some tweaks.

It has less power, producing 154kW (30kW less than the standard V6 Ranger), but maintaining the same 600Nm of torque, and it also has upgraded cooling to support load-lugging, with the front fan upgraded from 800W to 1000W.

The inverter is also 400W to support additional electrics, and mechanically there is a new transfer case, new front and rear differentials, upgraded CV shafts and main drive shaft, as well as an 18-inch brake package.

For emissions compliance, the Super Duty is equipped with both a DPF (diesel particulate filter) and AdBlue. But being conscious of the needs of many heavy-duty users, the brand has added a manual override for the DPF cycle so it doesn’t slow the vehicle down when full power is needed.

The same 4x4 auto system is employed, allowing automatic all-wheel drive to be applied in the standard driving mode. The differentials can be independently locked via the off-road menu in the touchscreen.

The tuning of this engine does make a tangible difference to the drive experience on the road, and while four cylinders are more prolific in the dual-cab space, the 3.0-litre V6 does what it can to bridge the gap between the more standard crop of turbo diesels and bigger V8s in American full-sizers.

Charging will be a key element of the E-Transit’s appeal (or not) to buyers, with fleets needing to maximise the van’s time on the road. Ford claims that with a 115kW DC fast-charger the E-Transit battery can go from 15 per cent charge to 80 per cent in just 34 minutes.

With the onboard 11.3kW charger it takes 8.2 hours to get the battery back to 100 per cent capacity.

The E-Transit supports bi-directional use of the battery too. In the US the E-Transit is available with its Pro Power Onboard technology as an option. This allows for the driver to draw up to 2.4kW of power from the vehicle’s battery to power tools and other equipment as necessary. 

One feature that is confirmed for the Australian-bound E-Transit is what Ford calls, Scheduled Pre-Conditioning. This is a system that allows the operator to pre-set the climate control for the cabin while the van is still on charge so that you can still have maximum charge available when you start driving.

As a vehicle that slips into the category above the standard crop of dual-cabs, the Super Duty doesn’t wear an official fuel consumption number.

The story won’t be great. Anecdotally, as we were hopping in and out of several vehicles on this launch test, the computers were all showing over 12L/100km.

To be fair, we spent hours off-roading, towing, and driving in mixed countryside conditions, so hardly merciful, but we were also mostly unladen for the majority of the driving.

With a 130L fuel tank though, the Super Duty should still have plenty of driving range.

Electric vehicles have earned a reputation for rapid, exciting acceleration… but that’s not the case with the E-Transit. Performance could best be described as modest, with adequate but unspectacular acceleration.

Which is fine, because the E-Transit is not meant to be a ‘ludicrously’ quick van, instead it’s meant to haul a load as efficiently as possible. On that front it does a good job, with smooth (albeit gentle) acceleration and steady pulling power.

It’s important to note, though, that our test car was unladen - with only some shelving installed in the back. So we’ll have to reserve judgement on how the E-Transit performs with a full load on-board, on Australian roads.

The rest of the driving experience is as you’ll find with the Transit. The steering is nicely weighted and direct, which makes manoeuvring such a huge vehicle straightforward. 

The ride is on the firm side, which isn’t unusual for either a van or an electric vehicle as it needs to control so much weight, but it isn’t uncomfortable and offers good control.

A lot of the experience of driving the Super Duty is familiar to the rest of the Ranger line-up. It feels comfortable and refined from behind the wheel, but certainly a size-up from its siblings.

For those who have driven any recent Ranger, this will be very good news. There’s not much about this vehicle that feels properly clattery like some light truck alternatives, and if you’ve driven a Raptor before, the pumped-up width and height will be familiar.

The brand has even managed to maintain an excellent steering tune which balances weight and feel, despite the differences to the hardware underneath. Even the ride quality, something Ranger is so well known for, has carried across to this model, despite significantly beefed-up components.

There is a degree of ladder-chassis jiggle to it, and if you throw some really rough terrain at it, the Super Duty will have the odd harsh moment, but on the whole it’s impressive what Ford has managed to do with such a significantly altered ute.

Over a long day of driving in harsh conditions, the seat quality proved to be comfortable, while ergonomics in the cabin are fairly robust, with a good driving position, physical dials for the climate unit, and easy manual adjustability.

The tweaked V6 engine is an interesting story. Unladen, off-the-road, and at commuter speeds it feels similar to the standard version, but things change when you throw different stress factors at it.

Stomping on the accelerator, for example, elicits a dulled response compared to the relatively athletic performance of the standard engine, with the 0-100km/h sprint (for all the good that will do the commercial audience) significantly impacted. We recorded a (not very scientific) 14.1 seconds.

When a lot is asked of it, either for overtaking scenarios or when laden, the engine creates a fair bit of noise and doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to go anywhere (even chugging up a hill at 60km/h with six tonnes combined across tray and trailer). But it’s the consistency and the throughput of the torque that's been focused on for this re-tune, which Ford says should keep the engine capable of doing these sorts of tasks all day.

The transmission isn't too busy or annoying, smoothly shifting through gears.

The Super Duty made light work of the off-road component of our test drive, making the real-world conditions feel easy, and the way it handled the more theoretically challenging staged tests was impressive, too. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such articulation ability from a leaf-sprung rear suspension set-up, while the clearance angles also remained impressive.

Levels of grip on offer are also impressive from the stock tyre, which importantly also offers a hefty amount of sidewall for the more hairy stuff, and the traction systems doesn't seem to miss a beat.

Safety systems are tame on the country roads we took it on, barely skipping a beat, and are thankfully not at all annoying.

It is big though, so I can imagine parking in a city might not be easy (it’s already hard enough in a Raptor), so again, it’s worth asking if you need this kind of capability before you pull the trigger as a private buyer.

The Super Duty will size-out of ANCAP’s gaze (for now), but it maintains the standard truck’s kit, which maintains its five-star rating awarded in 2022.

Standard features include auto emergency braking (AEB), lane support systems, blind spot monitoring, driver attention alert, and adaptive cruise, but there are also commercial vehicle rarities like front and rear parking sensors and a surround camera suite. There's even an array of nine airbags.

Again, there’s some thoughtfulness here. Ford has put extra time into making the 'Driver Assist Technology Bar' in the rear bumper both protected from off-road hits and designed to be as compatible as possible with the kinds of accessories which will be fitted, so its functions can be maintained. Even things like the 360-degree parking camera, which a 70 Series definitely doesn’t get.

And the mirrors are enormous, which helps with both the tray width and towing.

Ford Australia has already confirmed that the E-Transit will be covered by Ford’s now-standard five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, plus an extended eight-year/160,000km warranty specifically for the battery and high-voltage electric components.

Ford offers the same five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty as the rest of its range, and servicing, which is required once every 12 months or 15,000km, is capped price.

It costs $469 per visit for the first five years, which is more expensive than the standard Ranger ($379 per visit for four years, then $430 for the fifth), but it’s still not outrageously expensive (and not priced much differently from a HiLux when you consider that model's six-monthly service visits).